Singapore Weekly 20260309

Mar 09, 2026

Singapore business, finance and trade news, every Monday.

a group of fish swimming in an aquarium — Photo by Shefali Goyal on Unsplash

Hormuz Choke Fires Up Fuel Prices

High-sulfur fuel oil prices at the bunkering hub jumped more than 40% this week as the Iran war choked tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, stranding Middle Eastern supplies bound for Asia. The price of low-sulfur fuel oil has soared almost a third since the war began, with traders scrambling for cargoes before local inventories are drawn down. The Energy Market Authority says that electricity prices could go up if global gas prices stay high, a concern given Singapore’s 95% dependence on imported natural gas for power generation. About 42.5% of LNG imports in 2025 arrived from Qatar, shipped through the now-stalled strait. Gas prices have already risen by as much as half in European and Asian markets after QatarEnergy shut down production after drone attacks. "Everyone is struggling to find oil for the second half of March," one trader told Reuters. "Tankers are too expensive and arbitrage is closed."

Read more: CNA, Oilprice (fuel price spikes), Business Times (regulator price warnings), The Independent Singapore (youth job impacts), Business Times

Two Cities, One Gilded Prize

Hong Kong and Singapore are squaring off to become the world's foremost gold trading hub, with both cities courting the same Wall Street titans as precious metal prices continue to climb on geopolitical jitters. The central bank confirmed it's been working with major market players since last year to support more local gold trading, declining to deny reports that it's wooing JP Morgan and UBS. Hong Kong, which featured the push in last month's budget, thinks that it holds the stronger hand, however. Hong Kong’s direct access to mainland China's market gives it an edge that Singapore can't match. The MAS says it'll share details on its plans "in due course."

Scam Camps to Superyachts

Authorities have seized or frozen more than half a billion Singapore dollars in assets tied to Chen Zhi's Prince Holding Group, the transnational scam syndicate that ran forced-labor compounds in Cambodia before the US and UK nailed it with sanctions last October. The haul includes properties, luxury cars, watches, cash, and securities accounts, with vehicles registered to SRS Auto, a car-leasing firm whose owner, Tan Yew Kiat, also founded local fashion label bYSI. Tan was arrested in November on money laundering charges; two other Singaporeans followed, including the captain of Chen's superyacht Nonni II. A warrant has been issued for Karen Chen, 43, who allegedly instigated someone to falsify accounts and left the country before the October probe began. She's believed to be in Cambodia.

The Arbitrator Who Knew Too Much

A whistleblower has tipped off the UK's Bar Standards Board about a British KC who sat on a $490 million arbitration panel at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, according to a report by Eureporter. The barrister was one of three arbitrators considering a claim by BVI-registered Kleros Capital Partners against India's Tata Power. Visa records unearthed by Russian journalists allegedly show the KC visited Moscow on trips sponsored by a friendship society chaired by Kleros' CEO, a link that SIAC's ethical code would have required the arbitrator to disclose. Tata is appealing at the Singapore International Commercial Court.

MHA to Meta: Don't Even Hate-Share It

The Ministry of Home Affairs hit Meta with five Disabling Directions under the Online Criminal Harms Act, forcing the platform to block posts showing a man putting his foot on the Quran aboard a public bus. Police are investigating under the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act. The ministry warned that even a reposting in condemnation of the video is a perpetuation of the offense, and is telling the public to report content to authorities rather than share it themselves.

Phantom Workers, Real Fines

The Manpower Ministry caught about 100 employers gaming foreign worker quotas through fake CPF contributions between 2024 and 2025. The schemes involved paying into accounts for locals who never showed up, artificially boosting hiring entitlements. Penalties will be up to S$20,000 for every fraudulent work pass application, AND a ban on future hiring of foreign workers. The ministry says it's using both complaints and surprise site checks to find the cheats.

Greener Balance Sheets, Sharper Boards

MAS is reviewing its corporate governance rules to push boards harder on value creation and investor engagement. It is also publishing environmental risk management guidelines for banks, insurers and asset managers that will come into effect in September 2027. The governance review, run with SGX and the Corporate Governance Advisory Committee, wants boards to explain more clearly how they're creating shareholder value and to tighten up on corporate culture, board effectiveness and risk management. The climate rules, an expansion of guidance previously shared in 2020, now expect financial institutions to assess physical and transition risks, work with customers on their exposures, and keep up with measurement methods as they evolve.

Read more: Business Times (code changes), Business Times (environmental guidelines)

Point-Eight-Seven and Falling

Lee Kuan Yew gave up on the problem back in 2012, saying even a baby bonus worth two years of the average wage wouldn't move the needle. The fertility numbers have only gotten worse. The rate came down to a measly 0.87 last year, down from 0.97 in 2024. The numbers mean that 100 residents today are expected to produce just 44 children and 19 grandchildren if the trend holds. Deputy PM Gan Kim Yong says it’s an existential issue and warned the citizen population could start shrinking by the early 2040s. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the math gets uglier when you account of the fact that seniors will jump from about a fifth of the population now to almost a third by 2050; the working-age share is expected to start dropping in the mid-2030s. Not everyone's convinced the sky is falling, though. Veteran newspaper editor Han Fook Kwang, for example, is on record saying that a smaller population doesn't guarantee an economic catastrophe.

Silicon Valley Pass Gets an Upgrade

A new AI and Technology track under the One Pass visa will come into play in January 2027 to replace the three-year-old Tech.Pass scheme. The new visa comes with revised terms that have been designed to lure the world's top digital talent. Recognizing that elite AI engineers get paid in stock options as much as salary, the new track lets applicants meet the S$30,000 monthly income threshold through a mix of cash and equity compensation. Eligibility requires at least five years in senior leadership or specialized technical roles at sizable tech firms or venture capital shops. Manpower Minister Tan See Leng thinks it will be a way to attract what he called "movers and shakers, rainmakers and network brokers" who can spin off multiple enterprises. Having said that, however, the ministry is tempering expectations early by saying that it expects low application numbers, given the high bar.

Read more: Business Times (cabin crew expansion), Business Times

Property Giants Eat China Losses, Stay Anyway

Evergrande has been liquidated, once-solid Vanke is drowning in debt, and recent earnings from the city-state's biggest real estate firms show losses on their mainland holdings as the slump grinds through its sixth year since Beijing laid down the "three red lines" lending caps in 2020. Singapore was China's largest property buyer as of 2018, pouring in 34.65 billion yuan (just under US$5 billion) in that year alone. Beijing's recent policy support and market size mean most aren't pulling back entirely, but the game is shifting from a play of wide exposure to one of cherry-picking tier-one logistics and retail assets in cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen and steering clear of the residential glut that’s hamstrung domestic developers.

Six EV Fires

Six EV fires were recorded in 2025, and half of them were traced back to high-voltage battery failures, up from a single incident in 2024. The Civil Defence Force chalked the rest up to other electrical faults, including a dashboard component and the rear compactor of an electric waste truck. EVs are 7.4% of the national fleet; fully electric models accounted for 45% of new car registrations last year, the first time that EVs topped the list. Authorities are studying whether EVs and plug-in hybrids should carry different and distinct license plates so first responders know which burning car might electrocute them.

Diplomas in Hand, Offers Absent

Fresh graduates are finding 2025 a hard sell, with full-time placement dropping five points to below 75 percent as median pay has remained flat at S$4,500 monthly. The share of graduates that is hunting unsuccessfully is up to 8.5 percent, and more of them have taken on part-time gigs as outward-facing sectors like ICT have pulled back on hiring. Universities say the problem is cautious employers and slower churn post-pandemic.

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