The Fall of Neptune Orient Lines: Singapore's National Shipping Company 

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I have worked on APL ships since 1990. The management under NOL was idiotic. I was on the APL Eisenhower when NOL took over. They had not negotiated a new pay scale on that ship so were stuck with the old APL rate. Your pay rate can not be reduced without breaking articles ( signing you off the ship). You can not be signed on board without a pay scale. That is the law. The captain called whole crew into his office and ordered us to sign off articles he had the top of paper covered to keep anyone from seeing it. As if we did not know what articles looked like. We all signed and went right to radio shack to turn him into US coast guard. When we signed off and not back on that ment he had no crew. You have no idea how illegal that is. I was interviewed by US coast guard 3 times on that ship and the chief eng god rest soul Tom Freeman killed himself. I was only on that ship for 6 months. Another example is the APL MV China. I was on a ship in the pacific in late 1998. There was a typhoon that month and we could not out run it. We did what every ship has always done. If you cant out run it then stay out of its path and let it go by. Not the china. We watched in horror as that captain maintained heading and sailed right through the typhoon. That ship was beat to hell and had to limp into nearest port. Its not the cost of storm damage if you can not get the cargo to its destination on time and in good shape then you have to cut your shipping rates. That cost the company a LOT of money. Too many other examples to go on. NOL was managed by idiots.

The reason for the fall: Ng Yat Chung, Umbrage

In the last year CMA CGM absorbed remaining commercial business leaving APL to just government/military business. NOL was renamed ‘CMA CGM Asia Pacific’ too - wiping away the last remnants of NOL. It’s just a distant memory now

My uncle used to be a Master with NOL..retired and continued with them as delivery captain..now fully retired

In shipping, size (=economies of scale) and timing (invest cheap in down cycles to rip benefits during the good moments) are the keys to success. NOL did not go for (ultra) large ships and that made it impossible to compete profitably. Already in 1996 when Maersk launched the post-panamax "behemoth" Regina Maersk with 6,000teus there were many voices saying it was too big. I cannot find it online but I remember NOL management being on of those saying going larger than Panamax (+/- 5,000 teus) wasn't a good idea. Now the "standard" is 20,000+ teu ships. Those critical voices keep coming back with every new series of larger ship but those who do not evolve in size inevitably come out loosing.

This is a brilliant documentary. Ex APL employee here. NOL was a great employer. Shame CMA CGM has erased all of the heritage.

The story of the fall of Hanjin might be interesting for a future video?

Awesome channel and content. Hope you do more videos on Singapore. Perhaps the maritime industry? 😃 From a small fan from SG

Former CEO NYC was incompetent but one highly overlooked area is CMA CGM, which everybody raved about their management. NOL APL posted a profit in 2017 but sank into deep losses in 2018 and 2019. That's perspective for those who thought CMA CGM was the saving grace, which they weren't.

"Give it to someone who can do something with it and move on to their real priorities." Useful life advice there...

I love the channel's content and I hope you continue to grow so others can see your videos man. Thanks so much for the regular uploads.

Flush with cash from the sale of NOL to the French, Temasek Holdings extended a loan to troubled PIL, paving the way for a possible backdoor re-entry into the shipping scene.

ahh Sunday evening and John has posted. glad to have it thanks John .m

I once went to NOL in Alexandra to interview for an office job. A cemetary is Mardi Gras in full swing by comparison. Of course I was not hired as I have a pulse.

"Umbrage" lead by "example". Now, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is being taken over by a non-media company. What an irony!

Thanks for the analysis! Cant wait for the Carl Zeiss video.

I took umbrage at this video. 😂

Excellent content.

This happens when you put a military man who knows absolutely nothing about the business in charge. Everything he touches, becomes losses. If he ever has a shot as Google CEO, Google will go bankrupt within a year or two, and sold it off for cheap, and make it seems "profitable".

Good research

It is not only NOL, "RICKMERS GROUP" also gone around end May 2017. I would say their investment to "big boat" doesn't endeavor them out of the cost and finally got Bankrupt. And the fresh one of Singapore (in 2020) should be Mr. OK Lim's "OCEAN TANKER" & its subsidiaries.

This is awesome!

Well done 👍🏻

Thanks for the video, the shipping industry is very cyclic and tightly coupled to the economy as a whole. I believe a lot of people in the comments did not fully listen to your research and just lump the entire issue to "military" management seemingly ignoring all the other non-military linked CEO and like you have said, it is not that simple. From your video it is very clear that without huge capital to cushion any fall and to introduce economy of scale when there is good opportunity, it hard to survive in the shipping industry. I agree to your conclusion that it is a good decision to pivot out of the industry completely. Any chance to do a video on the Port Operators of Singapore?

In the SAF we were train how to spend money , not train how to make money.

Good work with the video, I wish I have money to sent for you to do the Malaysian shipping company counterpart

Probably NOL didn’t have the vision path set in the early times. Its a shame. However NOL ain’t the only shipping line from Singapore. PIL still running their trade lane pretty fine.

thank you

Can you make videos on NYK, K line and MOL, also there Joint venture ONE.

NOL executives were a BIG BIG joke...

A pragmatic approach by Temasek. Not all businesses are tenable in the long run.

Thank you for the analysis. I wished local media would provide such in-depth analysis when covering said topic but it's just much easier to publish headline-worthy soundbites, gleam over the embarrassing details, and go back to reporting sex scandals than educate Singaporeans.

Wonder if ocean tanker or ok Lim can be taken on the future video?

Strange that a CEO who sank a Singapore Gem is next made the CEO of another Singapore Gem, SPH. Does this happen elsewhere? NOL was turned profitable in less than a year by the French company! True to form, he again sank SPH

VERY GOOD !!!!!!!!

You can train a nobody to become a general but you cant train them to become a towkay.

Any company high in debts n corruption surely will fall vertically

when i see their containers i always thought it was SNOL because of the logo

*MY UNCLE,,,CAPT. JALAL,,,,,WAS FOUNDER OF NOL (NEPTUNE ORIENT LINE)*

Please make a video about BBK ELECTRONICS

I had some dealings with NOL at one time in the early days as a vendor doing some IT consulting work. The senior management were a bunch of bureaucrats, having big degrees or seniority but pretty much useless in real life practice. They pretty much ran the company into the ground. Your comments about NOL bringing in western staff are also accurate, unfortunately these western "expertise" were really rejects who probably couldn't make it in the US or elsewhere, so they got jobs in Asia instead. Together with lousy local upper management, the company was doomed. Deep down, the local Chinese Singaporeans still thought of the Brits, Americans and other westerners as superior. Different note but in the same vein, the Singapore government setup the National Institute of Technology offering IT courses with western instructors. It was a common joke among the foreign expats working in Singapore at the time. I interviewed numerous local graduates with big degrees, all good at pushing papers, but none worth hiring. Can't blame the poor local students though, I had a chance of talking to a few of these western instructors, they were retards and rejects who brought out-of-date theories and handed out degrees not worth the paper they're written on. It was a case of some incompetent moron being laid off as a low-level analyst in the US or UK, hey how about applying for a teaching job in Singapore. Good video, good history, good analysis and summary. Reminds me of those days, working with many nice local people.

Can you look at Evergrande's bust? I think the complex geopolitical and financial relationship can be rather insightful for East Asian economies.

This happened when you put a queen bee to lay eggs for an ant colony.

Awesome

Putting rigid military men to run a business is a bad idea, nothing good comes out of it. Ng Yat Chung - NOL/SPH, Desmond Quek - SMRT! Any others? Temasek never learns.

In hindsight, it's very easy to make a SWOT analysis. The fact of the matter is that shipping is a capital intensive business. You may have to run for upto 2 decades without making a profit. The pandemic and current restrained capacity has artificially raised prices. Hanjin, Hyundai, MOL, YML, the list is endless and consolidating balance sheets is the way to go. The enterprise value of all shipping companies has gone down significantly 2008 onwards.

2015 was also the year when not only Avengers 2 arrived but the 7th chapter of Star Wars and First Order war will break out Star Wars Episode 7 - Force Awakens taking place in 34 ABY 30 years after War of Endor ended.

Could you do a video no how and why Creative Technologies failed?

Please also do a story on the fall of ocean tankers.

The company that nobody in Singapore talks about anymore

I am french and i'm so happy that we bought this company

The greatest shipping lines are still by the Greek Aristotle Onassis, nobody can beat his management.

I walk-in for interview with Mr Kim,crew manager,3 time.but no vacancy.but I join the aet ship at late time.nol building .alexandra.give sweet memory as a seaman.thanks.

Another company poorly managed by the umbraged ex-general.

Government will dispose business that is no longer strategic to the government long term investment…

Were those charters long-term? Otherwise it seems that NOL could have cut its costs more easily in the financial crisis. Also, what are the fixed costs which were removed by consolidation?

Poor leadership and management team, these people have no passion for the business and looking down from ivory tower only manage company by Kpi to increase their share options and built in golden parachute. Singaporeans should take umbrage on these paper tigers.

NOL also create jobs for Singapore Sembawang Shipyard when they build the ships used by NOL. Singapore government not only want a shipping company that help to export Singapore goods to other countries. They also want to create jobs after Singapore independence, due to very high unemployment rate.

A video about Sinkapore Prositute House would be great too.....just sayin.

As a Singaporean i took umbrage that NOL was sold to CMA CGM for CEO incompetency

Parachute directors that never know their traits.

NOL was under temasek holding which is control by some one.so whom to blame?

Trains, planes and automobiles...and shipping, are good ways to make a fortune: start with a billion and end with a million. Wealth destroyers for shareholders, as Buffett would say (and not take his own advice, and lose money).

saving for education about the benefits and limits of singapore model

It was managed by an incompetent clown. The French turn around the company in less than a year to profitability.

This sounds like a good MBA case study. Like those from Harvard Biz School!

The merger between COSCO and China Shipping would be a good story to tell.

What is your take on the u-turn by the govt now to help bail out PIL?

Good stuff and great video! I've been hearing about NOL's bad end for decades so I really appreciate this great summary. It's not a story you would necessarily learn from the Singaporean government. 😆 Loved your unbiased take though, there has been a lot of myth and rumour surrounding NOL's sale and finally this video cleared a lot of that up for me.

Great video, but one thing though, Temasek is pronounced as Te-Ma-Sake, sake as in for someone's sake rather that Tei-ma-sek

I take umbrage at this video

Fantastic Leadership by Paper Army General NOL then SPH "Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results" Albert Einstein

Who is the CEO of NOL before the Mr umbrage? Analyse further ,Check also the CEOs of the govt linked companies before it is publicly listed in SGX,and later privatised. Eg intraco etc etc .Maybe you can learn something from this,?

Invest in the future

With Covid19, SIA are facing same route of failure, selling shares and diluting investor's holdings, Temasek had to increase their investment when their share offering fail to attract investors. Long lockdown n closing of borders are making SIA into a hungry $$ burning machine (burning US$1 billion in 2020)

The one and only problem with Singapore is they always or should I say everything and every-time when they appoint the candidate to lead, that guy completely doesn’t know that particular industry at all! Worst zero commercial knowledge at all! The only criteria and credential is the candidates must have a string of PhD or the rank of Gen or must be from the inner circle. Correct me if I am wrong? Name me which SG companies are not? Absolute and total failure!

They also had incompetent masters navigating their vessels...go read up on the apl china blunder Also there was a time where the crew were running a stowaway syndicate

UMBRAGE!

Good thing about tamesek is that they know when to let go of a company.

One thing's for sure, Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune.

Why are people criticising the people running it, when it’s the industry that’s broken.. They could have followed Evergreen to purchased bigger vessels, but those aren’t necessarily going to be profitable in the long run. With covid and war drills around SEA region, things are more uncertain than before. Seems like they made good judgment to exit, gaining back several billion before a being bankrupt like hanjin.. That’s the dynamics of all businesses, go in the right time, exit at the right time.

SIA jewel of t crown.......meh

It's the then CEO, a former General of Defence force, who ran the company into oblivion.

If only the Indian government knew when to let go of failed companies

NOL had been badly managed for many years.

Very sad

This is what you get when you put a "paper general" in charge. The amazing advantage of being a paper general in SG is, no matter how you screw up, how big the screw up is and how many people are affected by your screw up, you will never be condemned. You just move on to another department/ministry/company and take over as the head, and likely fuck it up the same way again.

First increase salaries for Singapore port foreign workers work more pay less 😢

Sale to Cn 💯👍

Another great investment by Temasek. Great job by the overpaid fund managers.

The Company was managed by Academically Brilliant Technocrats with very strong elitist and bureaucratic dispositions. The results speak for themselves.

It's a very great company

Now PIL is going the same path !

Send a boy with no relevant experience , the result is to be expected.

Would to see a reports about APL and Sealand, two American carriers disappear in international shipping. Poor and corrupted management ….

Shameful!

Poor NOL management

This is what we call Capilaism in Action.

Temasek could pour massive funds to rescue Singapore Airline,but allowed Neptune Orient Lines to be sold off. Wondering who actually made the decisions ???