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SINGAPORE: Shipping executive Teo Siong Seng, who is accused of conspiring to restrict the output and fix prices of dry containers, will take a leave of absence from his roles at the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce (SERT) and Enterprise Singapore, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Friday (May 22).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Responding to CNA queries, MTI said it was informed by Mr Teo that his leave of absence was to “focus his attention on addressing the indictment by the US Department of Justice”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MTI added that it was \u201cunable to comment further given the ongoing legal process in the US\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Teo became SBF’s chairman in May, 2025. As SBF chairman, he is part of <\/span>SERT<\/span>, which was set up last year to help businesses and workers deal with the impact of US tariffs.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The alleged conspiracy went on for over four years, from November 2019 to at least January 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019 profits by about 100-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain crisis.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cnot to be high profile since it might violate the monopoly law or being accused of price manipulation by our customers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Teo had purportedly written in response to the executive\u2019s report on the meeting that \u201cwe also need to keep low key\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When another Singamas board member said in an email that the discussions \u201cappeared to be anti-competition\u201d and suggested deleting the email string, Mr Teo allegedly wrote back saying: \u201cYes I feel the same\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n