Adequacy of Singapore’s Seaports to Anticipate and Manage Severe Cargo Congestion

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether Singapore’s seaports are adequately equipped to anticipate and manage severe cargo congestion arising from global disruptions; (b) whether the closure of other ports will be delayed until the Tuas Mega Port is fully operational; and (c) whether the Ministry can elaborate on the protocols and projected duration for resolving cargo congestion in our seaports.

My reply will also address Written Question No 69 for today’s Sitting and related questions from Ms Joan Pereira1 and Mr Saktiandi Supaat that have been filed for a subsequent Sitting.

The Red Sea crisis has led to vessels being diverted to the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope for sailings between Europe and Asia. As a result, ports around the world are experiencing more off-schedule arrivals. In our port, about 90% of container vessels are arriving off-schedule, compared to an average of about 77% for 2023. Many of the vessels are also arriving within a short window, compounding the issue by causing a “vessel bunching” effect.

To allow vessels to return to Europe more quickly, container shipping lines are relying on Singapore as a transshipment port to unload cargoes bound for Asian ports beyond Singapore before turning around. Container lines are also using Singapore to rearrange their containers on the vessels, to maximise the number of containers carried and facilitate operations at downstream ports. As a result, both the demands and complexity of container handling at our port have increased.

These have lengthened the time container vessels stay in our port for cargo operations, which, in turn, increased the waiting time for incoming vessels, leading to congestion at our container berths.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and PSA are working closely together with our Tripartite Partners to address the congestion. We have reactivated some of the berths and yard space at Keppel and Tanjong Pagar Terminals. Since the start of the year, PSA has ramped up its handling capacity across its terminals and will continue to scale up in the months ahead to meet anticipated demand.

In line with Singapore’s port capacity development plan, three new berths will also be operationalised at Tuas this year. The first of these commenced operations just yesterday, with two more berths starting operations in October and December respectively. If the increase in demand is sustained, PSA will also expedite and bring forward the development of additional capacity.

Pasir Panjang Terminal will remain in operation until at least 2040, to support the transition to Tuas Port which will have a capacity of 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) when it is fully completed in the 2040s. This will ensure that our port container handling capacity does not decrease and will instead continue to grow when Tuas Port progressively develops. As PSA increases its container handling capacity, MOT and MPA are supporting PSA to ensure that there are sufficient workers for its expanded operations.

MPA and PSA are also in discussions with all the major container lines, using MPA’s Just-In-Time system, to optimise vessel arrival times and operations and improve vessel turnaround. For vessels that arrived off-schedule and are waiting for berths to be ready, the container liners will use the waiting time to conduct services, such as bunkering and ship resupply, at the anchorages.

The strong growth in container throughput and the reliance on our port to turn around transshipment containers reflect the global shipping industry’s confidence in Singapore as a trusted hub port. Container throughput at our port between January and May this year has increased by 7.7% to 16.9 million TEUs, up from 15.7 million TEUs in the same period in 2023.

While our efforts have improved average waiting times this month, it is unlikely that the Red Sea crisis will ease any time soon. The situation could also be compounded by an increase in container volumes as companies bring forward export schedules out of Asia and in preparation for major holidays in the second half of the year.

MOT and MPA will continue to work closely with PSA, our unions and the container shipping lines to deal with the situation, so that the port of Singapore can handle the additional demand and uphold the service excellence, reliability and efficiency that we are well-known for.