Band-Aid Burns a Billion, Tariffs Bite Next

Ceasefire Buys Time, Canberra Sends Fuel

Apr 13, 2026

Singapore business, finance and trade news, every Monday.

a couple of boats in a canal — Photo by Shino Nakamura on Unsplash

Band-Aid for the Energy Burn

The government rolled out a support package worth close to S$1 billion ($780 million) on Tuesday, in the biggest emergency fiscal response since the pandemic. Corporate tax rebates were increased from 40 to 50 percent, with further cash grants bringing the total cap to S$40,000 ($31,200) per company. A S$500 CDC voucher tranche is getting pulled forward from January 2027 to June, and a one-off Cost-of-Living Special Payment will be increased by S$200. Platform workers, taxi and private-hire drivers will get direct S$200 cash payouts. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam told Parliament the Republic has enough fuel and food but said that higher prices and fewer choices are likely, in addition to noting that even after hostilities stop, oil and gas export capacity won't recover quickly because of damaged infrastructure in the Gulf.

Read more: Business Times (corporate rebate), Business Times (reserve adequacy), Business Times (facility cooling), Business Times (price freeze), Business Times (bus fare subsidy)

Tariff Wave Two: The One That Bites

Washington switched tools after the Supreme Court killed Liberation Day tariffs in February, replacing emergency powers with Sections 232 and 301. Section 232 lets the US tariff entire product categories on national security grounds, from semiconductors to pharmaceuticals, and Section 301 puts a bulls-eye on countries that are considered to be using unfair trade practices. Unlike the temporary 10 per cent import surcharge that was placed under Section 122, both will put restrictions into domestic law, making them more difficult to later negotiate away. Singapore weathered 2025's first wave, mustering 5 per cent growth against downgraded forecasts of as low as zero, but the new American strategy will hit the export engine directly. Even before any actual tariffs are applied, the uncertainty is damaging. Trade with the United States accounted for roughly a quarter of Singapore GDP in 2024.

Gan Goes to Washington

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong is in the US through April 17, meeting cabinet secretaries and members of Congress as the two countries celebrate six decades of diplomatic ties. He’s pulling up just as Washington is sleuthing to find alleged excess semiconductor capacity. Gan is expected to launch Enterprise Singapore's fourth US office in Austin, join IMF Spring Meetings in his role as MAS chairman, and talk about economic cooperation with officials in Texas. Bilateral trade in goods and services was $317.1 billion in 2024 (Washington runs a consistent surplus).

Read more: CNA (Austin office), AsiaOne (Semafor conference), Business Times (USTR details)

Fuel Buddies Make It Official

"As long as upstream supplies continue", was Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's asterisk when he and Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese signed an agreement this week to keep LNG and refined fuels flowing between the two countries. Australia supplies 32 percent of Singapore’s LNG, and the Republic is responsible for the supply of 55 percent of Australia's petrol, 22 percent of its jet fuel, and 15 percent of its diesel. Wong assured Albanese that fuel exports won't be restricted, even as the crisis squeezes crude supplies; at least one Jurong Island refinery is running at 60 percent capacity. Both sides plan to make the arrangement legally binding and are expected to have further ministerial dialogues on energy resilience, but neither leader went home with any new shipments in hand.

Read more: Business Times (32% LNG figure), Abc Net (maximum efforts pledge), Sbs (November 17 date), Abc Net (60% refinery capacity), The Guardian ($10B petrol value)

No Toll on the High Seas

"It is not a privilege to be granted by any bordering state, it is not a licence to be supplicated for, it is not a toll to be paid." Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Parliament on April 7 that transit passage through international straits is a right under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, not a bargaining chip, in a powerful statement of principle. Balakrishnan called on all sides to stop attacks on non-belligerent states and engage in good faith negotiations for a lasting resolution.

Read more: AsiaOne (UNCLOS statement), Business Times

Flag Carrier Grounded by Fuel Math

Jet fuel at roughly double the cost is was at the beginning of this year has cut Singapore Airlines' quarterly net profit by more than half. The carrier has reduced routes, hiked surcharges, and cut capacity through May despite healthy passenger loads through February, wiping out the advantage of its historically good work on hedging fuel costs. Management says that operating conditions are going to remain tough through June, contradicting earlier ~~hopes~~ expectations and sending the stock price lower.

Read more: Nomadlawyer (summer forecast), Thetraveler (cancellation timing), Aviationa2z (Dhaka expansion)

Bull Market with an Empty Dance Card

A 23% climb in the Straits Times index through 2025 (the best showing since 2009), supported the benchmark index’s move through 5,000 for the first time in February, but the exchange can barely get anyone to show up for a debut. The number of IPOs rose from six in 2024 to 16 last year (less impressive against Hong Kong's 119). Delistings and buyouts pushed the roster to a 20-year low of 605 names in October as the island's biggest names keep listing elsewhere: Grab chose Nasdaq in 2021, and GLP, which delisted in SG in 2018, is expected to relist in Hong Kong later this year.

Six Figures for a Car Permit

COE premiums jumped in all categories during April's first bidding round, with mainstream cars hitting S$118,000 ($87,700), up 5.5 per cent, and commercial vehicles topping the S$80k level ($59,500), prices not seen since October 2023. Motorcycles cracked S$10,000 for the first time since 2024. Legacy Japanese and German brands have been clearing stock ahead of Parf rebate cuts that took effect in February, but Chinese EV demand has staying strong.

Robotaxis Roll Into Punggol

Grab and ComfortDelGro got the government's nod to partner with Chinese autonomous vehicle makers WeRide and Pony.ai to test robotaxis on public roads in Punggol; the transport ministry expectes 100 to 150 vehicles by the end of the year. The vehicles will ride with safety officers to start, but the plan is to eventually go fully driverless, matching what's already running in Beijing, Shenzhen, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

East Side Gets a Hospital, Eventually

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced plans to release government land for a new private not-for-profit acute hospital in eastern Singapore with 300 to 400 beds. It would be the first such land release in nearly two decades. The tender will use a fixed-price model where bidders compete on care quality and cost efficiency rather than the price of the land, a deliberate shift after the 2008 tender for Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital saw S$1.25 billion ($940 million) of a S$2 billion ($1.5 billion) project go to just buying the land, as staff was poached from public hospitals. The ministry wants to pick a winner in the second half of this year.

Read more: Business Times (tender timeline), The Independent Singapore (Mount Alvernia context)

Blaze on the Docks, but Business as Usual

A container fire on Evergreen Marine's Ever Lenient burned for more than eight hours at PSA Pasir Panjang Terminal on Friday before being extinguished overnight. The 334.8 meter vessel, London-registered and built in 2014, saw no injuries or leaks (oil or otherwise). PSA is now offloading the affected containers while investigators try to figure out what sparked it, but port operations at the world's second-busiest container hub didn’t skip a beat.

Read more: CNA (extinguishment), Business Times (ship specs)

Seven Centuries of Cargo Proves the Point

Archaeologists say they’ve documented more than 2,350 shards of 14th-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelain from a single shipwreck off the coast. It’s the largest collection of this kind ever found in a single vessel. The cargo has been dated to some time around 1340 and 1352, when imperial restrictions had already eased up, but before civil war shut down Jingdezhen's kilns. The ceramics match similar pieces that have been excavated from Temasek trading sites nearby. At least 300 bowls made the voyage before sinking, proof that the island which became Singapore was at the centre of long-distance maritime trade networks seven centuries before it became the world's busiest transshipment port.

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