Singapore: The Singapore maritime industry has crossed the one billion gross tons shipping tonnage mark ahead of the timescale seen in previous years. 'Over the past few years, vessel arrivals in terms of shipping tonnage have registered double-digit increase,' said Captain M Segar, group director (Hub Port), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. 'This new high in terms of timescale for the one billion breakthrough signals that 2008 may very well be another record breaking year for the Singapore port.'
The vessel that had the honour of pushing the tonnage over the measuring point this year was the 50,243gt APL Australia, which arrived at the port yesterday.
In 2004, the billionth shipping tonnage record was achieved in the month of December. Subsequently, the billionth mark for 2005, 2006, and 2007 was achieved in November, October and September respectively. Vessel arrivals in terms of shipping tonnage have been increasing over the past few years: 1.042bn gt in 2004, 1.152bn gt in 2005, 1.315bn gt in 2006, and 1.459bn gt in 2007. [18/08/08]
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