The Port of Singapore has won for the 27th time the 'Best Seaport - Asia' award at the 2015 Asia Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards (AFLAS) held in Hong Kong on 24 June 2015, MPA Singapore said in its press release.
The Port of Singapore clinched the award for its leading performance on a range of criteria, including cost competitiveness, container shipping-friendly fee regime, provision of suitable container shipping-related infrastructure, timely and adequate investment in new infrastructure to meet future demand and the facilitation of ancillary services. The other finalists in the category this year are Port of Hong Kong and Port of Shanghai.
Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said, "We appreciate the recognition that we have received over the years and thank our partners and customers for their strong vote of confidence. We will continue to work closely with all our stakeholders to strengthen our competitiveness as a premier global hub port and international maritime centre. Singapore will also continue to plan and invest ahead, such as our commissioning of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4 this week which will increase the overall capacity of Singapore's port to 50 million TEUs when fully operational.
The Port of Singapore continued to achieve good growth in 2014. Its annual vessel arrival tonnage reached 2.37 billion gross tonnes (GT). Its container throughput hit 33.9 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), while total cargo tonnage handled reached 580.8 million tonnes. The total volume of bunkers sold in the Port of Singapore remained the highest in the world, at 42.4 million tonnes. The total tonnage of ships under the Singapore Registry of Ships was 82.2 million GT, putting Singapore among the top 10 ship registries in the world. On Tuesday, 23 June 2015, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officially opened PSA Singapore's latest Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4 development. When the expansion is fully operational by the end of 2017, Singapore would be able to handle a total of 50 million TEUs of containers annually.