Chee Hong Tat, Singapore’s Acting Minister for Transport, introduced a file 12 months in 2023 at a Singapore Maritime Foundation New Year Conversations occasion.
The annual vessel arrival tonnage within the Port of Singapore crossed three billion gross tonnage (GT) for the primary time, rising by 9.4% over 2022 and setting a excessive of three.09 billion GT in 2023. This displays development in all segments, together with container ships, dry bulk carriers, liquid bulk and chemical tankers, ferries and specialised vessels, amidst a world commerce slowdown.
Singapore’s container throughput in 2023 grew by 4.6% reaching a brand new excessive of 39.01 million TEUs, in comparison with the earlier file of 37.57 million TEUs in 2021. Eight berths from the brand new Tuas Port Phase 1 are operational, and 70% of reclamation works in Phase 2 have been accomplished.
591.70 million tonnes of cargo was dealt with in 2023, up from 578.22 million tonnes in 2022. The common month-to-month frequency of regional ferry journeys has recovered to about 70% of pre-COVID ranges.
Bunker gross sales of biofuel blends elevated to 520,000 tonnes, which greater than tripled from 140,000 tonnes in 2022. Biofuel blends of as much as B30 are commercially out there, whereas trials of as much as B100 are on-going. LNG bunker gross sales amounted to 110,000 tonnes in 2023, up from 16,000 tonnes in 2022.
In July 2023, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) efficiently performed the world’s first ship-to-container ship methanol bunkering operation, the place about 300 tonnes of inexperienced methanol was provided for the primary time within the Port of Singapore. New absolutely electrical 200-pax passenger ferries and provide vessels had been deployed in 2023, working inside port waters to help our maritime ecosystem.
51.82 million tonnes of bunker gross sales had been registered in 2023, surpassing the earlier file of fifty.64 million tonnes in 2017 – reflecting Singapore’s help to the worldwide delivery neighborhood as a bunkering hub. Of this, 1.2% had been various fuels, and that is anticipated to proceed with good development prospects within the coming 12 months.
The robust 2023 efficiency is essentially attributed to the restoration in regional commerce and the strong tripartite co-operation among the many unions, business and authorities to constantly improve the effectivity, reliability and security within the Port of Singapore.
Singapore is house to greater than 180 worldwide delivery teams in addition to different maritime gamers in finance, insurance coverage, cybersecurity, shipbroking, legislation and arbitration. Last 12 months, whole enterprise spending by key maritime corporations overseen by MPA exceeded S$4.8 billion, up from S$4.3 billion in 2022. 25 maritime corporations established or expanded their operations in Singapore final 12 months. These embody maritime companies corporations and corporations establishing sustainability desks in Singapore as a part of their decarbonisation technique and development plans.
MPA is working with business, researchers and the funding neighborhood to develop the marine know-how ecosystem. The variety of start-ups below Port Innovation Ecosystem Reimagined @BLOCK71 (PIER71) has grown from 17 in 2018 when PIER71 was launched, to 116 at present – up from 99 in 2022. These startups have raised over S$68 million in funding since 2018. MPA will proceed to work with its companions to achieve the aim of 150 start-ups in Singapore by 2025.
Singapore retained its lead because the world’s prime maritime centre within the XinhuaBaltic International Shipping Centre Development Index for the tenth consecutive 12 months in 2023. The Port of Singapore was additionally named finest international seaport for the third straight 12 months and finest Asian seaport for the thirty fifth time on the Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards.
The Singapore Registry of Ships (SRS) continues to rank amongst the most important ship registries globally. The whole tonnage of ships below the Singapore flag in 2023 reached 99.56 million GT, a rise of 4% from 95.47 million GT in 2022.
In 2023, 22 Singapore-flagged ships from 10 corporations obtained Green Ship Certificates below the Green Ship Programme. More of such vessels are anticipated to make use of Singapore as a flag of selection within the coming years.
In 2023, Singapore was re-elected to the Council of the IMO for the time period 2024-2025, in addition to the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) for the time period 2023-2027. MPA officers are presently helming management positions to facilitate worldwide consensus as Chair of the Working Group on the IMO Strategic Plan and Vice-Chair of the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). The eightieth Session of the MEPC adopted the 2023 IMO Strategy on Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships, for emissions from worldwide delivery to achieve net-zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions by or round 2050.
MPA renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IALA for a interval from 2024 to 2027 to help the coaching and capability constructing of IALA National Members, committing S$1 million to help IALA’s World-Wide-Academy in serving to coastal states implement IALA requirements successfully and fulfil their SOLAS Convention (Chapter V) obligations on marine aids to navigation.
An MoU was signed by MPA, IMO and the Ministry of Climate and Environment of Norway in March 2023 to collectively undertake technical cooperation actions to help creating international locations of their efforts to scale back emissions from ships and in ports. An IMO-Singapore NextGEN workshop was performed in Singapore to boost consciousness of actions to scale back GHG emissions from ships and foster cooperation alongside key delivery routes for over 40 members from the Asia-Pacific area, supported by the Singapore-IMO Third Country Training Programme (TCTP) and the IMO-Norway GreenVoyage 2050 Project.
Drawing from Singapore’s expertise from digitalPORT@SGTM, MPA additionally labored with the IMO and Angola on the Single Window for Facilitation of Trade (SWiFT) undertaking to develop a Maritime Single Window (MSW) platform for the Port of Lobito, Angola. The MSW was efficiently delivered and handed over in November 2023.
MPA Academy has expanded its efforts in offering management packages. In April 2023, Singapore introduced an enhanced technical cooperation and coaching package deal amounting to US$5 million. The package deal builds on the present Singapore-IMO TCTP MoU and helps IMO’s Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme.
To date, Singapore has established 4 inexperienced and digital delivery corridors serving as helpful platforms for the piloting and trial of different fuels in addition to digital options to help the transformation of the maritime sector. In April 2023, MPA established a hall with the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. In December 2023, two MoUs had been signed to ascertain the Tianjin-Singapore hall and Japan-Singapore hall masking six Japanese ports.
To place Singapore because the maritime inexperienced finance hub to help the vitality transition, MPA launched an Expression of Interest (EoI) in October final 12 months, inviting monetary establishments and intermediaries, in addition to marine insurance coverage suppliers and brokers, to submit proposals to speed up the adoption of electrical harbour craft in Singapore. The analysis of the proposals is on-going.
New requirements supporting vessel electrification, cybersecurity, and using new bunker fuels comparable to methanol and ammonia are below growth. In 2022, MPA and the Energy Market Authority collectively issued an EoI for ammonia energy technology and bunkering which attracted 26 proposals. The second choice section is on-going.
To enhance the effectivity and transparency of bunkering supply documentation and workflow within the Port of Singapore, MPA applied the Digital Bunkering initiative in November 2023. To date, 4 resolution suppliers have been accepted by MPA, and three bunker suppliers and barge operators have commenced digital bunkering operations. More corporations are anticipated to be on-boarded within the coming 12 months. MPA will proceed its efforts to collect suggestions and drive early adoption. When absolutely applied, digital bunkering is predicted to save lots of as much as 40,000 man-hours yearly.
In 2023, MPA labored with a number of drone operators to deploy drones to reinforce situational consciousness and incident administration response capabilities in help of the methanol bunkering operation and annual Ferry Rescue Exercise (FEREX) in July and October 2023, respectively. MPA can also be learning the event of a Fleet Traffic Management System to trace maritime drone actions in its port waters and make sure the security of port customers.
The first section of the Maritime 5G community growth, for protection within the southern port waters, was efficiently delivered in September 2023. MPA, working in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority, is on-track to ship full 5G protection within the main anchorages, fairways, terminals and boarding grounds by mid-2025.
To deepen native R&D capabilities in sensible ship growth and inexperienced applied sciences, MPA and the Singapore Maritime Institute awarded S$19.3 million in funding to universities and analysis institutes in 2023 for maritime R&D.
In 2023, ABS launched its Global Electrification Centre in Singapore to help marine electrification initiatives throughout the Asia-Pacific and world wide. thyssenkrupp and Wilhelmsen additionally arrange their three way partnership, Pelagus 3D, to supply digital manufacturing companies to the maritime business.
In November 2023, MPA launched a marketing campaign that celebrates alternatives and highlights the range of jobs in Maritime Singapore. The marketing campaign goals to encourage extra to discover new profession and skilled growth alternatives within the quickly remodeling maritime business.
In 2023, 60 MaritimeONE scholarships and 7 Tripartite Maritime scholarships had been awarded to college students throughout a variety of maritime and non-maritime levels supplied by native and abroad universities, in addition to college students from Singapore Polytechnic. 57 extra native seafarers have benefited from the Sail Milestone Achievement Programme (SailMAP) in 2023, from 38 in 2022. Launched in June 2022, SailMAP goals to encourage native seafarers to pursue a long-term profession in seafaring and obtain the best stage of competency.
MPA is carefully monitoring the present geopolitical state of affairs world wide and its affect on key delivery routes and international provide chains. Should the availability chain disruptions be protracted, and ships’ schedules more and more impacted, the Port of Singapore stands prepared to help ships to “catch up” on their schedules and to help shippers of their cargo connections. MPA has additionally issued advisories to shipowners, managers, operators and masters of Singapore-flagged ships to evaluation their ships’ safety plans and implement obligatory threat mitigating measures when buying and selling in high-risk areas.
