SINGAPORE, Jul 4 (NNN-XINHUA) – About 90 percent of container vessels are arriving off-schedule in Singapore, due to the Red Sea crisis, compared to about 77 percent for 2023, Transport Minister, Chee Hong Tat, told parliament in his latest written reply.
The Red Sea crisis has forced vessels to divert to longer routes around the Cape of Good Hope between Europe and Asia. As a result, ports worldwide are experiencing more off-schedule arrivals, Chee said in the reply, on Tuesday.
Shipping lines rely on Singapore as a transhipment to rearrange containers and facilitate operations. Such moves have lengthened container vessels’ stay in the port and increased the waiting time for incoming vessels, leading to congestion at container berths, the minister said.
Meanwhile, many of the ships are arriving within a short window, compounding the issue by causing a “bunching” effect, he added.
Chee noted, the port management agencies reactivated additional berths and yard space, and will continue to scale up handling capacity in the following months to meet the anticipated demand.
Container throughput in Singapore increased by 7.7 percent to 16.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), between Jan and May this year.– NNN-XINHUA
