THE world's second-busiest container port, Singapore, is facing pressure to deal with the huge feeder networks required to service mega ships that will soon flood the harbour.
Transshipment hub ports in Asia reported congestion last year as the size of ships grew faster than the terminals' ability to handle the vessels with surges in volumes at peak periods.
In Singapore, it is the growing number of feeder vessels and increasing ship connections that are challenging the port, which has long been one of the most efficient in the region.
Singapore's Pacific International Lines (PIL) managing director Teo Siong Seng said that the number of feeder ships required to fill or offload the ultra-large container vessels was adding time and cost to port calls.
"Singapore is the last port going west so when a mega-ship calls, you may need 20 to 30 feeders bringing the cargo in and 20 to 30 feeder ships bringing the cargo out," he said.
"One of the reasons for the congestion Singapore experienced last year was that with the mega ships, even members of the same alliance were operating their own feeder vessels," said Mr Teo.
He said the coordination required by the carriers to manage such a large feeder network meant mega vessels were often not as efficient as smaller ships.
"You have to deploy a vessel that is as efficient as possible for a particular route, because size alone doesn't mean you can be efficient in costs. Some of the smaller ports cannot be served by these big ships and have to use feeders, and those costs need to be added," Mr Teo said.
While the volume of containers being loaded and offloaded placed severe time pressure on dock operations, the stowage of containers was another critical area that he said had to be managed well to be effective.
PSA International CEO Tan Chong Meng said transshipment requirements were on the increase as ships grew in size. "Because of the alliances, the number of connections incoming and outbound has increased," he told a Sea Asia liner panel in Singapore.
"As the call numbers increase, where previously a ship would take boxes from 100 vessels and the boxes that are discharged may feed another 100 vessels, today the number of ship connections in and out of the port has gone up by 10-20 per cent. That requires more preparation, more planning and more sophistication."
Mr Tan said another challenge facing Singapore was what he called "fragmentation of the connection size" adding that while the number of connections had increased, "more than 80 per cent of the connections were less than five boxes."