The Port of Singapore has remained the world’s busiest transshipment port in 2021, while it registered a record high in container traffic of 37.5 million TEU.
It also remained the world’s leading bunkering power with bunker sales crossing 50 million tonnes for only the second time and it commenced regular ship-to-ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering operations from March 2021.
This comprised 49.99 million tonnes in conventional bunkers sales and 0.05 million tonnes in liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker sales, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
Meanwhile, the Asian port handled 599 million tonnes of cargo in total during 2021, with vessel arrivals reaching 2.81 billion gross tonnages (GT).
Singapore has also been ranked the top Leading Maritime City of the World for a fifth consecutive time in the international benchmarking study by the Norwegian classification society DNV and the Norwegian consultancy, Menon Economics.
Singapore’s Minister for Transport and minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, S Iswaran, outlined the four thrusts – resilience, digitalisation, decarbonisation and talent – that will guide the government’s efforts to advance the maritime sector and consultations, with the industry and unions on the refreshed Sea Transport Industry Transformation Map.
Iswaran also announced that the MPA awarded close to US$3 million of funding to eight projects involving 35 companies working together to accelerate the development of digital products and solutions for the bunkering sector.
These projects are part of the first industry transformation map to digitalise the maritime industry and will support the effort of Singapore Trade Data Exchange in data sharing across bunkering stakeholders.
Last but not least, the Singapore Registry of Ships continued to rank amongst top ship registries globally, “reflecting Singapore’s reputation as a quality flag of choice for international ship owners,” said the MPA in a statement.
The total tonnage of ships under the Singapore flag stood at 92.3 million GT, as of December 2021.
