LEIPZIG: One of the key challenges facing the shipping industry today is from within itself, as increasingly bigger vessels may outpace the development of port and landside infrastructure needed to support them.
While there has been a doubling in the size of ships every eight years, ports are built for about 30 years so there is a “timing difference”, said PSA International’s group chief executive Tan Chong Meng on Thursday.
Mr Tan noted that “mega mega-ships”, such as the Maersk Triple E class which can carry over 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), have appeared in the past few years, and the number of such vessels may hit about 80 in 2018.
