Singapore, Jan 8- As the global economy slowly returned to growth, the Port of Singapore maintained its global lead in bunker sales, and achieved good growth in annual vessel arrival tonnage, container and cargo throughput in 2013.
The Singapore Registry of Ships also continued to grow in size and ranks among the top 10 worldwide.
Singapore is also now home to about 130 shipping groups.
The maritime cluster employs more than 170,000 people and contributes some seven per cent to Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product.
These were reflected in the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s advance estimates of port indicators announced today by Minister for Transport, Lui Tuck Yew, at the Singapore Maritime Foundation New Year cocktail reception here this evening.
Annual vessel arrival tonnage reached 2.33 billion gross tons (GT) in 2013, an increase of 3.2 per cent from the 2.25 billion GT achieved in 2012.
Container ships and tankers were the top contributors, each accounting for around 30 per cent of total vessel arrival tonnage.
Container throughput hit 32.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2013, a 2.9 per cent increase over the 31.6 million TEUs in 2012.
Total cargo tonnage handled last year rose 3.6 per cent over 2012 to reach 557.5 million tonnes.
The total volume of bunkers sold in the Port of Singapore in 2013 was 42.5 million tonnes, compared to 42.7 million tonnes in 2012.
Singapore remained the world’s top bunkering port in 2013.
The Singapore Registry of Ships did well last year, with total tonnage of ships growing by 13.2 per cent or 8.6 million GT in 2013.
As of end December 2013, the total tonnage of ships under the Singapore flag was 73.6 million GT, putting Singapore among the top 10 ship registries in the world.
– Bernama
