Singapore set to retain busiest port status, offer big fee cuts

Asian Economic News, Dec 29, 2004

SINGAPORE, Dec. 21 Kyodo

Singapore looks set to retain its position as the world's busiest port in terms of the total size of ships that call, as the number has topped a record-breaking 1 billion gross tons, Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong said Tuesday.

''We will maintain our position as the world's busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage, ahead of Rotterdam and Hong Kong,'' Yeo said, as he announced that the gross tonnage of ships visiting the city-state so far this year surpassed 1 billion gross tons Tuesday -- a first-ever feat for Singapore as a port.

The port welcomed 986.4 million gross tons last year. Gross tonnage is a measure of volume, not weight.

Singapore has been the world's top port in terms of shipping tonnage in the past decade or more, said a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, an agency under the Transport Ministry.

Yeo also announced Singapore will slash its port fees by as much as 50 percent to stay competitive amid intensive rivalry among ports in the region for a slice of China's burgeoning trade flows.

The record-breaking performance has been attributed to the turnaround in world trade this year, the trend for shipping lines to use bigger ships, and the competitiveness of Singapore's port industry.

Speaking at a function to celebrate the 1 billion mark, Yeo also disclosed that in the first 11 months of this year, total cargo tonnage handled by the port jumped 13 percent from the same period last year to 357 million tons.

Container throughput, a measurement referring to the number of boxes, each the size of a 20-foot equivalent unit or TEU, has risen 16 percent to 19.4 million TEUs over the same period, and is likely to exceed 21 million TEUs by the end of the year.

Yeo said Singapore is also on course to retain its status as the world's top port for the supply of shipping fuel with total bunker sales expected to jump 12 percent to more than 23 million tons this year from 20.8 million tons last year.

In a bid to attract and retain shipping lines, Yeo also announced a 50 percent cut in port dues for vessels undergoing repair work lasting for more than 95 days, from January next year.

Yeo said the revisions in port dues could benefit some 4,000 ships annually and translate into S$2.5 million (US$1.52 million) worth of savings annually for the shipping lines.

More than 90 percent of port operations in Singapore are run by PSA Corp., which is fully owned by Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government investment company. The smaller Jurong Port handles the rest of the traffic.

PSA runs 37 containers berths in Singapore and is currently developing 5 new berths that are expected to boost its annual handling capacity to 24 million TEUs.

Singapore straddles the Malacca Strait, a key maritime route that carries a third of world trade and half of the world's oil supply.

It has dangled tax breaks this year to attract and retain shipping lines amid stiff competition from regional ports such as Malaysia's Port of Tanjung Pelepas in southern Johor State, Laem Chabang in Thailand and Tanjung Priok and Belawan in Indonesia, which are all vying to become regional shipping hubs.