WASHINGTON: When business was booming, port worker Ravindran would make up to 50 trips a day transporting cargo between ships and the yard, but he is lucky now if he makes 35. Those heady boom times have faded in the wake of the global trade downturn – something all too apparent to port employees, such as those at PSA Corporation’s Tanjong Pagar Terminal.
“(Back then) I usually didn’t even have much time for a lunch break,” Mr Ravindran, 52, told The Straits Times. “But today, I have time to sit down for a meal because it is less busy. It seems like fewer ships have been coming here since last year.”
Mr Ravindran’s experience offers a good snapshot of the shipping industry and, in turn, the Port of Singapore, amid the anaemic global economy. Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) data shows that there were 4,452 container vessel arrivals during the first quarter of the year, marking a 4.5 per cent growth year on year.
But container throughput for the quarter slumped 9 per cent to 7.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) – down from the 8.1 million TEUs in the same period a year ago, and a 0.4 per cent drop from the fourth quarter last year.
“Shipping lines may have been calling more at Singapore, but the intensity of volume is lower,” said Mr Victor Wai, a Drewry Maritime Equity Research analyst, adding that port volumes have been “stuck stubbornly in the high single-digit decline” since March last year. He attributed this largely to the alignment of the mega shipping alliances, which helped lift volumes at Malaysia’s Port of Tanjung Pelapas and Port Klang instead.
