Singapore port busiest

Singapore port busiest

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore was the world's busiest port last year in terms of shipping tonnage handled but Hong Kong remained tops in terms of container traffic, the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) said over the weekend.

Shipping tonnage to Singapore rose eight percent to 768.5 million gross tons, while the number of vessel calls increased by 13 percent to 117,723.

"These increases have enabled Singapore to again clinch the number one position as the world's busiest port," a PSA statement said, adding that growth came despite an economic slowdown in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region.

But in terms of container traffic, Singapore ranked second busiest in the world in 1996 with a total of 12.94 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) behind Hong Kong's 13.4 million TEUs, a PSA spokeswoman said.

The PSA Group, a semi-government body due to be turned into a corporation by the end of this year, reported a six percent increase in operating income to 2.049 billion Singapore dollars (US$1.46 billion) in 1996.