A drop in business, a dip in usage

Electricity consumption

Neo Chai Chin
chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg



AT MR Siew Yit Foong’s factory, machines that used to run for 24 hours are now in use for only half that time.

Overall, it has been quieter than what you would normally expect of a sheet metal manufacturing plant.

But scenes like these at Cititech Industrial Engineering are common these days.

At Cititech, Mr Siew’s 40-odd workers have also been clocking regular hours. There has been no need for any overtime work since last September.

It is also the same for other manufacturers, with some even reporting that demand for their products has dropped by 90 per cent, he said. The fall in such demand has been indentified as the key reason for electricity demand in Singapore falling to its lowest levels in at least two years.

Figures from the Energy Market Authority recently showed that demand in January was 2,938gigawatt hours — 3.2 per cent lower compared with 2007, and 6 per cent lower than 2008.

At Mr Siew’s company, there have also been conscious efforts to conserve energy. Lights and airconditioning are switched off during lunch hour and together with the machines’ shorter operating hours; this has reduced the monthly electricity bill from about $12,000 to $4,000.

Mr Siew’s company supplies sheet metal — used to make items like switch boxes, electrical circuit consoles, and even casino tables — to other manufacturers.

Could little gestures like switching off the lights lead to big savings in utilities bills for manufacturers?

Mr Andy Lok, sales and application manager at SDL Technologies, thinks this is unlikely. Profit margins in the industry are typically “more than 100 per cent of operating cost”, and the cost of electricity is almost negligible, he said.

To save during these times, manufacturers are repairing and overhauling existing machines instead of buying new ones. This cuts the cost by more than half, said Mr Lok whose firm has customers in the marine, offshore and gas as well as aerospace sectors.

Although big projects may have dried up, manufacturers need to repair their machines in order to continue taking on small projects, he said.

Because of that, demand for SDL’s repair services has doubled.

Cititech’s Mr Siew also said that since end-February, business has picked up by about 20 per cent although he isn’t sure why.

He is grateful for it though.

“When the whole place is silent, it’s not a good sign,” he said.


From TODAY, News
Friday, 03-April-2009