News / Singamas CEO Teo Siong Seng indicted in container price-fixing probe

Photo: © Joe Sohm | Dreamstime.com

Singamas Container Holdings chairman and CEO Teo Siong Seng has now been indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), accused of conspiring with three other container manufacturers to fix prices.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore said today that Mr Teo would stand down from his roles at the Singapore Business Federation, Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce, and Enterprise Singapore.

Mr Teo informed the ministry that he would “address the DoJ’s allegations”.

The Singaporean entrepreneaur became SBF chairman in May 2025, automatically making him part of SERT, which was formed last year to help businesses and workers deal with the impact of US tariffs. His duties as SBF chairman will be assumed by vice-chairman and treasurer Mark Lee.

As reported by The Loadstar yesterday, Mr Teo and China International Marine Containers chairman Mai Boliang are among seven executives from container makers, including Shanghai Universal Logistics Equipment (a Cosco unit also known as Dong Fang International Containers) and CXIC Group Containers named by the US in an alleged price-fixing conspiracy involving restricting production of dry containers to raise prices, between November 2019 to at least January 2024.

The US DoJ said that as a result of the conspiracy, prices of dry containers doubled between 2019 and 2021, increasing container manufacturers’ profits by about 100-fold during the Covid pandemic, when container freight rates reached historical highs.

US court documents show that 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”.

In April, Singamas marketing director Vick Ma was arrested in France and is awaiting extradition to the US.

Singamas said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing that neither it nor Mr Teo had been notified of the US indictment, adding that it had engaged lawyers.

Mr Teo is known to be well connected to the Singapore government and was previously a nominated Member of Parliament.

His late father, Chang Yun Chung, founded Pacific International Lines in 1967, but the family ceded control to a unit of Singapore’s state-owned investment group Temasek Holdings, following a bailout in 2020. The bailout restructured $3.3bn of PIL’s debt, saving the company from collapse.