PSA has reactivated berths and yards previously decanted at Keppel Terminal to alleviate port congestion caused by vessel diversion.
Singapore-based port operator PSA has reactivated older berths and yards that have previously been decanted at Keppel Terminal as a response to the ongoing port congestion in Singapore.
The congestion arises from the diversion of vessels around the Cape of Good Hope which has disrupted vessel arrival schedules at major ports around the world.
Data from Hong Kong-based analytics firm Linerlytica shows that Singapore has become the latest chokepoint with congestion reaching ‘critical levels’ totalling 2 million TEU.
“Berthing delays at the world’s second-largest container port of up to 7 days with the total capacity waiting to berth rising to 450,000 TEU in recent days. The severe congestion has forced some carriers to omit their planned Singapore port calls, which will exacerbate the problem at downstream ports that will have to handle additional volumes,” Linerlytica said.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said that since the beginning of 2024, Singapore has seen a significant increase in vessel arrivals.
“For the tanker and bulk vessel segment, the resupply and bunkering activities take place within the anchorages and these are not affected. For the container vessels, we have seen large increases in container volumes and the ‘bunching’ of container vessel arrivals over the previous months due to supply chain disruptions in upstream locations,” MPA said.
The port data shows that container volumes handled in Singapore in the first four months of 2024 amounted to 13.36 million TEU, an 8.8% year-on-year increase.
In the first four months of 2024, the monthly average tonnage of container vessel arrivals reached 72.4 million gross tonnage (GT), more than one million GT per month year-on-year. Beyond container vessels, the overall vessel arrival tonnage in Singapore, including bulk carriers and tankers, grew 4.5% year–on–year to reach 1.04 billion GT in the first four months of 2024.
The increase in container vessels arriving off-schedule and the increased container volumes handled in Singapore have resulted in longer vessels’ waiting times for a container berth.
“While most container vessels are berthed on arrival, port operator PSA has worked with liners to adjust arrival schedules where feasible, and where this is not feasible, the average waiting time for container vessels is about two to three days,” MPA said.
“The increased demand on container handling in Singapore is a result of several container lines discharging more containers in Singapore as they forgo subsequent voyages to catch up on their next schedules. The number of containers handled per vessel has also increased. Added to these demands, container lines are also leveraging PSA’s cargo handling capabilities to help manage their containers stowage onboard vessels to facilitate expeditious discharge of cargo for their subsequent port calls.”
The Ministry of Transport (MOT) and MPA have been working with PSA and the industry since late 2023 to prepare for higher vessel arrivals. PSA has since added more manpower and container handling capacity to help alleviate the situation. The port authority added that as a result of these measures, PSA can increase the number of containers handled weekly from 770,000 TEU to a total of 820,000 TEU currently.
In addition to the eight existing berths in Tuas Port, three new berths are scheduled to commence operations later this year, further increasing overall port handling capacity.
According to MPA, PSA plans to accelerate the commissioning of these new berths to help increase overall container handling capacity in the near term.
“MPA and PSA are working closely with container lines and regional feeders to update them on their berth availability and advising them on the arrival times to minimise delays in berthing,” the port authority added.
“There is no delayed berthing experienced for other vessels that call at Singapore, which is about two thirds of vessel arrivals. There is currently no crowding in the anchorages.”
Global liner schedule reliability reversed its improving trend and declined by -2.5 percentage points month-on-month in April 2024, data from Sea-Intelligence shows. The Copenhagen maritime analytics firm said the figure is now only 0.6 percentage points higher than the lowest year-to-date point of January 2024.
On a year-on-year level, schedule reliability in April 2024 was -12.1 percentage points lower. However, the average delay for late vessel arrivals improved by -0.31 days month-on-month to 4.74 days. This figure is now closer to the pre-pandemic lows than the pandemic highs. On a year-on-year level, the April 2024 figure was 0.40 days higher, Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence, said.
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