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With its berths bursting at its
seams and waiting time for ships gets longer at
Singapore Port, Malaysian ports may benefit from
the “spill over” effects of Singapore’s runaway
success.
In fact, with Singapore Port now balancing the
delicate choice of more land for port
development and coping with unprecedented demand
for land for real estate development, the gains
to Malaysian ports may accentuated over a longer
term.
Increasingly, the choice is being made difficult
with scare land skyrocketing property prices as
Singapore pushes ahead an ambition plan to
become an international financial, cultural and
commercial hub on par with cities like New York
and London.
Although land reclamation is a linchpin of the
growth strategy – that calls for adding another
60 sq km to Singapore’s current 700 sq km
territory - land-intensive port development may
soon have to give way to premium demand for real
estate development, especially demand for
commercial properties.
Singapore Port, which last year handled 24.7
million TEUs, is now reported at near saturation
as the port struggles to cope with demand that
is stretching its capacity of about 25 million
TEUs.
Recent surge in port traffic at Singapore is
evident from the highly monthly average of ship
arrivals at about 10,500 ship calls monthly.
The monthly average in arrival of container
ships has particularly increased with an average
of 1,600 ship calls monthly.
What is especially significant about the
increase and that is impacting the berth
capacity of the port is the arrival of bigger
ships taking up longer quayline. Some of the
mega sized container ships of 8,500 TEU’s size
require berths of about 350 metres.
While ships under preferred and appropriated
berthing schemes are working under tight
deadlines, ships which do not fall within these
exclusive categories are waiting to secure
berths.
In container shipping in which lines follow
strict fixed day/time port schedules, delay of
even an hour or two could impact the quality of
the service.
It is understood aside from the quayside queuing
of ships, Singapore Port which mounted
aggressive campaign in the five years to win
more transshipment traffic is now awash with
containers sitting on the container yards to be
transshipped.
Some of the shipping lines are already moving
out marginal services out Singapore – a move
which is said to benefiting the neighbouring
Port of Tanjung Pelapas and also Northport in
Port Klang.
Some of the major lines, including Maersk, are
adding new services strings to the Malaysian
ports in light of the strong growth in the
demand for transshipment in the region.
PTP, which last year handled 4.8 million TEUs,
has expanded its capacity to about 8 million
TEUs, while Northport, which last year handled
2.3 million TEUS has a capacity to handle 4.2
million TEUs.
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