A giant taking shape in Singapore
At Seatrium's northern Singapore yard, welders are assembling a towering yellow structure module by module. The finished unit will weigh 30,000 tons and serve as a high voltage direct current converter platform.
These platforms are billed as the largest of their type globally and each is built to handle around 2 gigawatts of power. One takes five years to construct and is meant to run for about four decades.
How it works and where it is headed
In 2028, the unit will set out toward the North Sea and be stationed 60 kilometers offshore to channel electricity from the turbines back to land. Turbines generate alternating current; the platform switches it to direct current so power can travel long distances with lower losses as projects move farther from crowded coasts.
Singapore is leaning on decades of offshore oil and gas know how to pivot into Europe's clean energy buildout, with HVDC platforms a core export. Few yards worldwide can deliver them at scale, raising the risk of a supply squeeze as the European Union pushes capacity growth.
Why Singapore is winning the work
TenneT chose Seatrium - which is partly owned by state investor Temasek Holdings Pte - to supply four platforms serving clusters in the North Sea. Roughly 7,000 people will construct the equipment at sites in Singapore and Batam, Indonesia, a roughly 50 minute ferry trip away. TenneT says each platform plus its connecting kit can run up to €5 billion ($5.6 billion).
The city state and nearby islands now make up as much as 20% of non China global capacity to produce these platforms, up from almost nothing a few years back, according to Ember's Lam Pham. With Middle Eastern yards disrupted by regional conflict, China and South Korea focused at home, and European yards busy with defense work, Singapore's labor intensive model can still come out cheaper even after shipping, Lam said. "The country has invested, the company has invested - and this is a showcase of what is possible," said Seatrium CEO Chris Ong.
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The market backdrop and your money
Offshore wind's near term has been bumpy. According to BloombergNEF, financing fell 72% year over year to around $12 billion during the first half of 2026, amid rising costs, constrained supply chains, and regulatory hurdles. Europe is still pushing: the UK's most recent auction resulted in a record 8.2 gigawatts being awarded, while Germany and the Netherlands are introducing new revenue support mechanisms. With sufficient state support, BNEF sees global installations roughly doubling by 2030, led by China, the UK, and Germany.
For investors, two threads matter. First, scarcity: only a handful of yards can build HVDC platforms, they take years to deliver, and price tags can reach the billions. Second, pipeline: as of July, Seatrium was pursuing S$9 billion ($7 billion) of HVDC and HVAC opportunities across Europe and Asia Pacific, with clean energy now around 40% of its order book.
Ong, formerly the head of Keppel Offshore & Marine before its merger with Sembcorp Marine to form Seatrium in 2023, frames the demand as both transition and security policy for Europe. "The scale and the massive need for offshore wind is a big security drive," he said. "It has to happen."
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