Indicators of port's productivity
I refer to the article by Robert Schwartz titled Port of Singapore faces competition, which appeared in the July issue of Trends, and would like to make the following clarification.
The author asserts that the Singapore port's ability to react to increased competition may be hampered because of lagging productivity. Mr. Schwartz then states "From a 9.1 percent rise between 1990 and 1991, the PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) recorded no productivity growth between 1993 and 1994, and only 3.7 percent to 1995."
Productivity can be measured in a number of ways. The so- called "lagging productivity" in the article refers to the slow increases in the ratio of value-added to wage cost. This was mainly due to the 14 percent salary increase introduced by the government in 1994 as well as increases in staff recruitment for the new container terminal at Pasir Panjang.
The more important indicators of our productivity, at least to our customers, are in the areas of terminal facilities and operational efficiency. In all these other indicators, PSA outperforms most of the other major ports.
In our commitment to provide fast, reliable and flexible services to our customers, we have been able to service vessels at an average fast rate of 79 containers per hour. Our ship turnaround time of 12+ hours is also among the fastest in the world. To provide the highest level of service quality, PSA also keeps the waiting time for a berth to the minimum. In 1995, 89 percent of container ships did not drop anchor, they were berthed on arrival.
In terms of ship turnaround times and container moves per hour, the figures show that PSA has consistently achieved positive gains in operational efficiency.
These improvements have been the result of PSA's investment in information technology and staff development. We believe that PSA will be able to stay ahead of the growing competition because of our commitment to provide greater innovation, efficiency and better service for our customers.
JOHN LIM
1 Assistant Director,
Corporate Communications,
Port of Singapore Authority