“The additional berths will allow us to offer more flexible and attractive options to new potential customer requirements. We also intend to give more attention to the development of the port hinterland.
“We believe the Free Zone will play a major role in the development of the port as an engine and catalyst for continued growth” he said.
He said a wider choice of products would soon be made available to cater to customers’ needs.
“We believe in the benefits of smart partnerships and have begun to c-develop new terraced warehouses with an established local property player,” he said.
In 2001, PTP managed to attract two of Singapore’s major shipping lines; Maersk Sealand, a unit of Denmark’s A.P. Moeller and Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest shipping company.
Denmark’s Maersk Sealand is also the port’s major client.
Maersk Sealand was own over the lower cost at PTP. It was also given an irresistible offer; to take up a 30 per cent stake in PTP and a contract to manage the container terminal.
Meanwhile, Evergreen was unable to persuade Singapore to revise its charges. PTP offered Evergreen attractive charges and a cash subsidy.
He said the shippers’ confidence in PTP was evident by the remarkable growth in the volume of domestic cargo handled by the port, and added that.
Since its official launch in 2000, PTP has grown from strength to strength in volume and productivity.
The port recorded its highest first half-year throughput ever, handling 2,010,620 TEUs in the first six months of 2004. It registered a staggering 25 per cent rise in container volume from the 1,604,650 TEUs handle during the same period last year.
Transshipment volumes during the first half of 2004 amounted 1,834,407 TEUs, up 24.6 per cent on the 1,472,297 TEUs handled in the first six months of 2003.Local cargo volumes posted a strong 22 per cent growth, up from the 63,526 TEUs handled in the first half of last year, to reach 77,576 TEUs in the first six months of 2004.
In the first half of 2004, 1,584 vessels called at PTP compared with 1,504 in the same period last year, registering an increase equates to around three extra calls per week.
With cargo volumes rising on major trade routes, in particular Asia-Europe, PTP is also experiencing all-round strong growth. It is for this reason that PTP has been able to maintain its pole as a trans-shipment port.