TAS Offshore - increasing outsourcing

It is increasingly outsourcing its vessel construction to contract shipyards in China to take advantage of their competitive pricing.

The number of vessels currently contracted out to two established shipyards in Guangzhou stood at 12, the highest ever. These are all anchor-handling supply (AHS) vessels for the oil and gas industry.

TAS’ customers are largely from Singapore, the Middle-East and Indonesia. Clients from Singapore contributed RM57.7mil or more than 40% to the group’s revenue of RM138mil for financial year ended May 31, 2013.

This was followed by United Arab Emirates (RM38.4mil), Papua New Guniea (RM14.3mil), Indonesia (RM9.1mil) and Panama (RM519,000). Less than 15% or RM18mil of group revenue came from clients in Malaysia.

TAS currently had some RM380mil worth of shipbuilding contracts on hand, which would contribute positively to its results up to financial year 2015.

TAS, which is also involved in ship repair, intends to build vessels for charter.

In the latest fourth quarter to May 31, TAS posted a group pre-tax profit of RM3.3mil on revenue of RM48.4mil. This brought the full-year pre-tax profit to RM16.7mil on turnover of RM138mil, compared with RM15.5mil and RM101mil respectively in the previous financial year.