Singapore box volumes up 18% in February

The number of containers handled at Singapore ports shot up 18 per cent last month from the same month a year earlier - the fourth straight monthly year-on-year rise as trade continues to improve.

A total of 2.18 million standard-sized boxes were moved, up from 1.85 million in February last year, reported the Strait Times.

The numbers, from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), were boosted by a low base last year, when global trade was battered by the recession.

However, in month-on-month terms, the February number fell 6.4 per cent from 2.33 million boxes, reversing January's two per cent rise from last December.

Economists blamed a shortened calendar month due to the Chinese New Year holiday and said that trade was still very much on the recovery path.

Major port operator PSA International handled 2.11 million boxes last month, down from 2.26 million boxes in January.
Jurong Port moved 74,400 boxes, up from 72,000 boxes the month before.

Economist David Cohen of Action Economics said that, adjusted for the holiday, cargo throughput may have risen by as much as 25 per cent last month from a year earlier. "It highlights the strong economic rebound over the last 12 months,'' he said.
"Exports and re-exports are picking up in line with the global recovery evident in trade data across the region.''

Trade slumped to its worst level in decades last year with cargo traffic at Singapore's ports falling to its lowest ebb in three years in February last year.

The global economy has since recovered, and trade is expected to revert to expansion after shrinking last year.

In Singapore, total container throughput had grown every year since 2001, before contracting last year. Last year, 25.9 million containers were handled compared with 29.9 million in 2008. This was the lowest total since 2006.

(Source: Cargo News Asia)