Teo Siong Seng to take leave of absence from SBF, economic task force to address US price-fixing allegations

Mr Teo, who is the CEO and chairman of Hong Kong company Singamas Container Holdings, is one of seven executives from shipping container manufacturing companies that the US named in the price-fixing conspiracy. 

The alleged conspiracy went on for over four years, from November 2019 to at least January 2024. 

The US Justice Department said that as a result of the conspiracy, the prices of standard shipping containers doubled between 2019 and 2021, increasing container manufacturers’ profits by about 100-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis.

Court documents showed that days after a December 2019 meeting between the alleged conspirators, a Singamas executive reported to Mr Teo that he had reminded the others “not to be high profile since it might violate the monopoly law or being accused of price manipulation by our customers”.

Mr Teo had purportedly written in response to the executive’s report on the meeting that “we also need to keep low key”. 

When another Singamas board member said in an email that the discussions “appeared to be anti-competition” and suggested deleting the email string, Mr Teo allegedly wrote back saying: “Yes I feel the same”.