COSCO PLANS TO INCREASE VOLUMES THROUGH SINGAPORE BY 20%

COSCO PLANS TO INCREASE VOLUMES THROUGH SINGAPORE BY 20%    COSCO Container Lines said that it plans to increase its transhipment volume via the port of Singapore by about 20 percent in the next 10 years.
   Chen Jingde, deputy managing director of COSCO Container Lines, said that the company expects to raise its Singapore throughput, within a decade, to 300,000 TEUs, from about 250,000 TEUs in 2000.
   Chen was speaking at the Pasir Panjang Terminal in Singapore for the maiden voyage of the “COSCO Singapore,” a new 5,400-TEU containership.
   COSCO has a 10-year terminal agreement with PSA Corp., the operator of the port of Singapore.
   The Chinese carrier makes more than 20 calls a week at Singapore. COSCO said that it is investigating adding intra-Asian services to gain more regional volumes.
   “Although the slumping shipping market forces a lot of shipping companies to adjust their services and cut capacity, we are quite confident of arecovery of the market by developing main haul business and seeking hub ports,” Chen said.