ASIA

Singapore spearheads throughput for PSA

14 years ago

Singapore based operator, PSA International, says that its throughput of 60.06m teu was up by 5.2% last year over 2011 – largely thanks to the fact that its flagship PSA Singapore Terminals performed so well.

PSA’s Pasir Panjang facility is under development

Its Singapore terminals handled 31.26m teu, up by 6.4%. Many would argue that this is because Asia has been affected to a lesser degree by the global recession. Consequently, PSA terminals outside of Singapore handled 28.80m teu, up by 3.9%, perhaps a symptom of the more difficult trading conditions across Europe and America.

Mr Tan Chong Meng, group CEO, PSA International, said: “2012 was another challenging year for shipping and port industries as global trade growth continued to be weak, undermined by volatile market conditions, including the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, sluggish recovery of the American economy, turmoil in the Middle East and the slowdown of economic growth in China.”

But despite this, he confirmed that PSA will continue to invest in new port projects and upgrade its current facilities in 2013 – and this is perhaps another reason why throughput in Singapore will continue to increase.

Currently, PSA Singapore Terminals is investing US$2.84bn to develop Phases 3 and 4 of its Pasir Panjang facility. The development, scheduled for completion in 2020, will include 15 new berths, 6,000m of quay length with 18m draft, an automated container yard with proprietary intelligent planning and operation systems, and unmanned, rail-mounted gantry cranes.

PSA says that Pasir Panjang needs to be developed the necessary capacity and capability to meet future growth of global trade. But beyond this, PSA still has its eye on the bigger picture, the long term plan to consolidate all container handling at the new port, Tuas, which should go into operation within the next 10 years.