Rolls-Royce opens Singapore plant

By Saira Syed Business reporter, BBC News, Singapore

In a cavernous white room, about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, an aircraft engine is being tested.

At full throttle, it will suck in a squash court full of air every second.

The seven-tonne cylindrical Trent 900 engine, which powers the biggest passenger plane in the world - the Airbus A380, hangs in mid-air at the heart of the Rolls-Royce Seletar facility in Singapore.

When engines like this one start rolling off the production line in a few months' time, it will take 14 days to put one together from start to finish.

Compare that with the more than 20 days it takes the quintessential British manufacturer's main UK facility in Derby to put together the same engine.

That lure of increased productivity is central to Rolls-Royce's decision to start manufacturing here.

"The decision to invest in Singapore is about growth," says Jonathan Asherson, director for South East Asia at Rolls-Royce plc, the marque's aerospace arm.

"We are going to deliver double the amount of engines by the end of this decade than we do now.

"To cater for that growth we need to invest, and the investments we make need to be near our customers, and in this case to the highest-growing region for us."

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