Sembcorp Industries, owner of the world’s second-largest oil-rig maker, plans to boost its water-supply business by 50% by 2013 in Asia’s US$14 billion ($20.4 billion) water market, an official said.

Sembcorp, which is setting up a $180 million water-treatment facility to meet about 15% of Singapore’s water needs, plans to expand into industrial water-treating in the Middle East and China, Executive Vice President Tan Cheng Guan told reporters today. The company starts supplies from the Changi Newater plant in two weeks’ time.

“China’s megacities will create opportunities to put in new water management systems,” Tan said. “We are focusing on large-scale desalination plants and power projects in the Middle East.”

Sembcorp plans to boost the capacity of its water treatment business by 2 million cubic metres a day from an existing 4 million, Tan said. It may cost $200 to $1,500 per cubic metres of capacity, with sea-water desalination plants the most expensive, he said.

The Changi project in Singapore will produce at its full capacity of 228,000 cubic metres (50 million gallons) per day of water, enough to fill 152 million 1.5-litre bottles, from next year, Tan said.

The company is selling water from the plant to the Public Utilities Board of Singapore at 30 cents per cubic metre, he said. The cost of production, which involves purifying water using membranes and ultraviolet rays, may be around 22 to 23 cents, he said.

Sembcorp is focusing on industrial water and desalination projects because the margins on cleansing dirty, chemical-greased water for industries such as chip making are high compared with supplying water to homes in municipal projects, he said. The industrial water business accounts for about 8% of the water market in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.