Singapore Retains Position As Worlds's Busiest Port In 2011

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, March 20 (Bernama) -- Singapore retains its position as the world's busiest port in 2011 despite the past few years being challenging ones for shipping, says its Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law, K. Shanmugam. "For decades, we have retained our position as one of the world’s busiest ports in terms of vessel arrivals, bunker sales and container throughput. "Vessel arrival tonnage was a record 2.12 billion gross tonnes in 2011 (up 10.5 per cent from 2010). Total bunker sales in 2011 rose by 5.6 per cent to 43.15 million tonnes, while container throughput for 2011 grew by 5.3 per cent to 29.94 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units)," he said in his address at the 2nd Annual Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (SCMA) Conference here Tuesday. He said the maritime sector was important to Singapore, contributing seven per cent to gross domestic product and employing 170,000 people. Given the importance of maritime trade to Singapore, Shanmugam said, there was a need to have a framework in place to ensure that disputes were effectively resolved. Shanmugam said the SCMA was established in 2004 to cater to the demand to settle shipping disputes in the region. As ad hoc procedure in the global choice for conducting arbitration of maritime disputes, he said, the SCMA was re-organised in 2009 as its original model was based on the administered model of arbitration provided by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). Shanmugam said the maritime arbitration caseloads had been increasing steadily with over 100 maritime-related caseloads heard by SCMA and SIAC from 2009 to 2011. He said the value of the cases was also growing, with the largest single case around US$250 million for claim/counter claim. The minister said the acceptance of SCMA Rules internationally was also rising with over 50 per cent of the parties involved in registered disputes not being Singapore-based. Shanmugam said he was made to understand that SCMA was also considering expanding its board of directors to include local and international luminaries in maritime arbitration. "This will enable SCMA to tap their knowledge and networks to give strategic guidance for the next phase of SCMA’s growth, and give SCMA a more international reach," he said. In line with this, he said, SCMA has also stepped up its marketing activities to promote greater use of SCMA clauses and its panel of arbitrators to boost its international profile and Singapore’s importance as a key node of the global maritime network. -- BERNAMA