Looking to the year ahead and further forward, PSA International group chairman Fock Siew Wah warned that “the world and our industry will continue to be buffeted by an inexorable range and accelerating pace of transformation and disruptions in the way goods are produced, sold, transported and used.”
“PSA will continue to work closely with its partners and customers to tap the relevant technologies, develop innovative solutions that facilitate trade flow and improve processes, and co-create business models that will bring sustained benefits and value to all stakeholders in the global supply chain,” Fock concluded.
Group ceo Tan Chong Meng also noted the increasingly digital dimension to the upcoming changes in the industry. “As we witness the current wave of digitalisation and acknowledge the increasing quest for cargo flow visibility, we believe PSA can work with our customers and partners to create a new suite of solutions that exploit the opportunities which digitalisation offers, taking advantage of the fact that PSA already operates at key nodes of global trade and supply chains,” he said.
“Going into 2018, we are keenly aware that the dynamics of our industry remain highly changeable and competitive. PSA will therefore keep an open mind, embrace change and collaboration, seize opportunities, and seek common good,” Tan added.
Meanwhile, with one eye on the dynamic changes in store in the future and the other firmly fixed on managing the present challenges, PSA saw good gains in both its international and flagship Singapore operations in 2017.
As a whole, PSA International (PSA) handled 74.24m teu in 2017, representing an increase of 9.8% from the previous year.
PSA’s flagship Singapore Terminals contributed 33.35m teu of that, with throughput rising 9.0% over 2016. PSA terminals outside Singapore delivered a total throughput of 40.89m teu, growing at a slightly faster pace of 10.4% over 2016.
Acknowledging the role of the recovery in the global economy, Tan said: “2017 ended on a relatively positive note as global container throughput had its strongest showing since 2011, aided by stronger economic growth in many countries.”
Alluding to the much speculated volume gains at the expense of neighbouring ports, he also noted that “the frenzied container liner shipping consolidation in 2016, which percolated into service deployment changes in 2017, also contributed towards PSA's group throughput for the year”.
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