'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.