PSA: Road ahead “bumpy and uncertain”

PSA: Road ahead “bumpy and uncertain”

PSA: Road ahead “bumpy and uncertain”

   Singapore-based port and terminal operator PSA International said Saturday it had net profit in 2009 of 964 Singapore dollars ($689 million), a 7.6 percent decline from 2008.
   Revenue was SGD$3.8 billion ($2.7 billion), a 12.7 percent decline.
   The company, which runs 28 ports in 16 countries, said it handled 56.9 million TEUs in 2009, down 9.9 percent from 2008. It said that was in line with the percentage drop reported for the industry globally.
   PSA, which grew out of the Port of Singapore Authority, said it handled 25.1 million TEUs in 2009 in Singapore, a 13.1 percent drop. It said that made Singapore the busiest container port for a fifth year.
   PSA said it handled 31.8 million TEUs outside of its home market, a 7.1 percent decline. The smaller decline was “due to some countries (e.g. China) being less affected by the global crisis and to the contribution of container volume from new port startups in Chennai and Vietnam,” it said.
   “The last two months of 2009 and the first two months of 2010 showed tentative signs of recovery, but the road ahead will be bumpy and uncertain, and all indications point towards a slow and drawn out recovery with different regions rebounding at different rates,” said Eddie Teh, PSA’s group chief executive officer. “The fear remains that a macroeconomic storm will be inevitable to clear all the excess global production capacity that was created.'