Heritage Trails :: Yishun Sembawang Trail :: Sembawang Shipyard

Right at the end of Sembawang Park, you can see ships berthed at the Sembawang Shipyard. The shipyard was established on 19 June 1968. Prior to that, it was part of an extensive naval base known as Singapore Naval Base, which was built by the British in the 1920s. When the British began to withdraw their troops in 1968, the base was handed over to the Singapore Government for a token sum of $1. Sembawang Shipyard was thus set up to undertake commercial ship repair.

In the 1970s, the shipyard focused on training locals to take over duties from expatriate staff, developing a safe working environment and improving its facilities so that it could handle bigger ships. By the 1980s, the shipyard was one of the most established shipyards in the region. Its floating dock, which was launched in 1981, was the biggest in Asia during its time.

The 1990s saw further growth and expansion of the shipyard's facilities and Sembawang Shipyard became known as the premier shipyard in Asia for the repair and conversion of cruise ships. It was also the decade when Sembawang Shipyard began to enter joint ventures to establish shipyards overseas, namely in China and Indonesia. Today, Sembawang Shipyard continues to be one of the most premier shipyards in the region with a reputation as a specialist in niche services such as upgrading and conversion of passenger ships and repairing of naval ships.