A new fire at PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia in Batam has once again drawn attention to shipyard safety, even though the latest incident caused no injuries or fatalities. The January 2026 blaze comes after two deadly fires at the same yard in 2025, keeping oversight of industrial risk firmly in the public eye.
The most recent incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, 25 January 2026, at the PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia facility in Tanjung Uncang, Batam City. The yard, owned by a Singapore-based company and regarded as a key player in Batam’s maritime and ship repair sector, was working on the vessel Elnusa Trans Samudera when the fire broke out.
Barelang Police Chief Kombes Polisi Anggoro Wicaksono confirmed that there were no casualties. Speaking in Batam, he said all workers at the site were accounted for, with no reports of injuries or deaths. Officers from Batu Aji Police, Barelang Police and the Criminal Investigation Unit’s Identification Team were deployed to secure the area and collect initial information on the circumstances of the incident.
Preliminary indications point to a system error as the trigger for the fire. According to Anggoro, strong winds at the time made conditions worse, allowing flames to spread more quickly before fire-fighting efforts could fully contain the situation.
Information from the Turjawali Ditsamapta Team of the Riau Islands Police places the start of the fire at around 2.00 pm local time. The blaze subsequently engulfed the Elnusa Trans Samudera, which was undergoing docking or repair work at the PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia yard.
Emergency response on site was led by PT ASL Shipyard’s internal rescue team in coordination with BP Batam. Their joint effort brought the fire under control within about two hours, with the flames reported fully extinguished at approximately 4.00 pm.
Although this latest fire resulted in no loss of life, it adds to a serious record at the same facility. Two major fires involving the tanker MT Federal II were recorded at PT ASL Shipyard during 2025. The first, on 24 June 2025, left four workers dead and five injured. A second blaze on 15 October 2025 was even more severe, causing 14 fatalities and 17 injuries.
The Barelang Police handled both 2025 incidents as cases suspected to involve negligence. Investigators named three suspects in connection with the June fire and seven suspects in the October case, including four foreign nationals and three Indonesian citizens. These two incidents continue to influence public expectations regarding accountability and the enforcement of safety rules at industrial sites.
While the January 2026 fire at PT ASL Shipyard Indonesia ended without casualties, the repetition of serious incidents at the same yard underlines persistent safety challenges in Batam’s ship repair industry. For stakeholders in both Indonesia and Singapore, the pattern of fires reinforces the need for robust oversight, effective safety systems and consistent law enforcement in a sector that supports regional maritime activity.
