Builders seek force majeure advice as COVID-19 causes labor crunch

Singapore has $20-$24b of building projects in the pipeline.

Singapore construction firms are asking for advice on invoking force majeure clauses in building contracts as firms face staff shortages over the COVID-19 outbreak, said a report by Reuters.

Singapore has an estimated $20-$24b of public and private sector building projects in the works in 2020, and any large impact on the sector, which is highly dependent on foreign labor, could help push the economy into recession.

Derek Loh, a partner at Singapore-based TSMP Law Corporation, said five clients involved in public sector construction projects have approached him in recent weeks for advice on force majeure, which refers to unexpected external circumstances that prevent a party to a contract from meeting their obligations.

Two other senior lawyers, who declined to be named, said they had also received queries related to force majeure.

The Building and Construction Authority has said, however, that contractors involved in public sector projects can seek extensions. It has also urged private sector developers to give extensions to contractors that work for them.

Read the full report here.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia