SINGAPORE - A joint venture between aircraft engine-maker Rolls-Royce and Singapore Airlines Engineering Company will invest US$180 million (S$242 million) to almost double the size of its aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) presence here from 2026, increasing its capacity by 40 per cent.
The move is expected to create 500 technician and engineering jobs that need to be filled by 2028, said Singapore Aero Engine Services (SAESL) in a statement.
Agreements will be signed with the National Trades Union Congress’ Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and NTUC LearningHub to promote these jobs and train new hires.
To pave the way for its expansion here, SAESL inked agreements on Feb 21 on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow to enter into discussions with two government agencies, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and JTC Corporation.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, SAESL chief executive Simon Middlebrough called the new investment here “a once-in-a-generation opportunity”.
He said it will help to cement the company’s position here for the next two decades, and allow it to grow its capacity and capabilities to support its customers until at least the 2040s.
SAESL is one of the world’s largest MRO companies that service Rolls-Royce’s Trent family of jet engines. It employs nearly 2,000 people and has a physical footprint of about 60,000 sq m in Singapore.
With the planned expansion, which will be completed progressively from 2026, the company will add another 50,000 sq m of space, the equivalent of seven football fields.
It will build a new 26,000 sq m facility in JTC’s Loyang industrial estate focusing on reworking and overhauling engines, and expand into Rolls-Royce’s existing facility at Seletar Aerospace Park.
The operations in Seletar will focus on the repair of large parts and low-pressure turbines.
The company’s current facilities in Changi – five buildings in Calshot Road and Loyang Road – will also undergo a major facelift so they can be reconfigured to meet the expected increase in production capacity.
The new investment will also cover new repair capabilities for some of Rolls-Royce’s high-value engine parts, tapping technology such as three-dimensional scanning.
Mr Middlebrough told The Straits Times that SAESL’s expansion mirrors the growth of its customer, Rolls-Royce. “We recognise the benefits of operating in the ecosystem that Singapore creates, and therefore, building on that is certainly far more preferable than creating new capability from scratch.” He said the competition here is for talent, and a focus for the firm is developing a significant Singaporean core.
“We will be talking to e2i and NTUC LearningHub because we recognise that we’re going to have to strategically work with those guys, because 500 people won’t fall onto your doorstep without you doing something differently,” he said.
“Is it easy? No. Is it a competitive marketplace? Yes, but it’s a market that is worth fighting for... If we didn’t think that, we wouldn’t make a US$180 million investment here.”
Mr Lim Tse Yong, head of mobility and industrials at EDB, said SAESL’s expansion will strengthen Singapore’s position as a global hub for aerospace MRO.
EDB had earlier said that Singapore’s aerospace industry is expected to hire more than 2,500 workers over the next three to five years, and the industry’s output here has outpaced global recovery, growing 16 per cent year on year in 2023.
SAESL said global demand for MRO services is expected to grow by 2 per cent to 3 per cent in the coming years to US$657 billion, and the Asia-Pacific region alone is expected to account for a third of this.
Other aerospace MRO companies have also expanded their presence and capabilities here, or have announced plans to do so.
ST Engineering plans to build a $170 million, 84,000 sq m aircraft maintenance facility in Changi Airport, while jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney opened its expanded Singapore engine centre on Feb 19, increasing its capacity by more than 60 per cent.
Safran Electrical & Power, which deals in aircraft electrical systems, announced plans at the air show to open a 2,800 sq m MRO facility at Seletar Aerospace Park.
Barnes Aerospace, which makes and maintains aerospace parts, also opened a new repair facility at the park to increase its capacity.
Meanwhile, aircraft engine supplier GE Aerospace said it is investing US$11 million to introduce advanced technologies to its operations at Seletar Aerospace Park to meet a surge in demand for components and turn its aircraft engine repair facility here into a “smart factory”.
Once completed, the new technologies, which include automated inspection systems and robotics, will also be used at two GE Aerospace plants in Loyang.
Ms Hadley Bowling, GE Aerospace’s Asia-Pacific vice-president for sales, said Singapore is an extremely strategic market for the company, with its repair facilities here accounting for more than 60 per cent of its global repair volume.
She added that the plan is to use the US$11 million investment to bring in more repair volume.
She said: “The entire industry (in Singapore) contracted during the pandemic.
“We have grown back to about 2,000 people, and we are looking to add another 200 this year, just so we can manage the throughput of the growth that we are expecting in the MRO space and in this region.”
