'Asian ports must cope with growth'

'Asian ports must cope with growth'

SINGAPORE (AFP): Asia has to beef up its ports and develop new ones to ensure that the region's economic vibrancy is not hindered, Singapore's trade and industry minister Yeo Cheow Tong said yesterday.

By 2000, Asian ports were expected to face an annual container-handling demand of 104 million twelve-foot equivalent units (TEUs), double the earlier estimated demand of around 52 million TEUs, he said.

In his opening remarks at the annual meeting of the Federation of ASEAN Shipowners Association here, Yeo said the global container throughput of ASEAN ports was expected to increase by more than 180 percent from the 1990 volume of 24 million TEUs.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), one of the fastest growing regions in the world, comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"The growing trade volume will also generate tremendous demands for port facilities," Yeo said, referring particularly to intra-Asian cargo volumes growing at an average 12 percent per year.

He said that intra-Asian cargo volume was expected to reach eight million TEUs by 2000, up from three million TEUs in 1991.

Yeo noted that Asia has controlling stakes in more than 17,000 ships or 40 percent of the world's carrying fleet.

In 1994, Asian shipowners accounted for 10 out of the world's top 20 container lines compared with only four in 1975, he said.