SINGAPORE: Home-grown shipping company Pacific International Lines (PIL) on Nov 13 laid off an undisclosed number of workers in Singapore amid a push for greater automation within the firm.

The restructuring impacted resource requirements at PIL’s shipping agencies globally.

As such, a relatively small percentage of the total workforce in Singapore was affected, a PIL spokesman told The Straits Times on Nov 15.

The spokesman did not specify how many workers or which roles were affected.

There will also be no impact to business activities at the shipping line’s Singapore head office.

PIL is working with its union, the Supply Chain Employees’ Union Singapore (SCEU), to support the laid-off workers, the spokesman said.

The SCEU is an affiliate of the National Trades Union Congress.

He noted that affected employees are being offered “enhanced” packages, including outplacement services, training grants, extended medical coverage and a projected bonus payout for 2025.

The lay-offs took place amid a move by PIL to adopt artificial intelligence-driven technologies to boost its efficiency and global competitiveness, for which it had also added more than 30% to its Singapore workforce.

“A part of this is achieved and accompanied by transferring and centralising certain manual tasks to locations which will support higher adaptations and preparation for process automation on a larger scale,” the spokesman said.

SCEU executive secretary Mohd Fahmi Aliman told Straits Times on Nov 15 that PIL provided the union with reasonable notice, ensuring that it had sufficient time to work together with the company to negotiate retrenchment packages for the impacted employees and render assistance to them.

“Since the notification from PIL, SCEU has been working closely with the company management to ensure that the exercise is conducted fairly and responsibly, in a sensitive and respective manner,” he said.

“SCEU managed to negotiate and secure a fair and equitable retrenchment package.

“Placement support services will also be provided to assist impacted employees.”

PIL’s job cuts also come after the firm rolled out a US$2bil plan in 2022 to replace part of its fleet with 13 dual-fuel container ships that can run on both liquefied natural gas and conventional marine fuel.

The first two ships were delivered in Shanghai in October and are currently two of the biggest in PIL’s fleet, with the capacity to move 14,000 containers each.

Earlier in November, PIL announced an order for five more dual-fuel container ships, set for delivery between 2027 and 2028. This brings its total newbuild orders since 2022 to 18 vessels.

In June, the firm established an academy to provide customised training for employees and new hires.

In 2021, PIL received a US$600mil lifeline from Singapore investment company Temasek’s wholly owned Heliconia Capital Management to help it stave off bankruptcy.

The bailout involved Heliconia taking a majority stake in the liner.

PIL is now among the top 12 container shipping lines globally and the largest in South-East Asia.

It is also Singapore’s de facto national shipping line after Neptune Orient Lines was acquired by French liner CMA CGM for US$2.5bil in 2016.

The liner reported in April that net profit for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2023, came in at US$277.6mil, about 10% of its 2022 earnings of US$3bil, due to slower global growth and falling freight rates.

It logged US$2.9bil in revenue for 2023, which was 53% lower than 2022’s figure. 

 - ANN