APMT to open Singapore headquarters

   APM Terminals said Thursday it plans to open a new regional headquarters in Singapore in September as its business in the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow.
   The terminal operators currently operates in the region completely out of Shanghai, with the move intended to free up the Shanghai office to concentrate on China and Japan. APMT said one in three boxes it handles (by equity share) comes from the Asia-Pacific region.
   “The new regional headquarters in Singapore will enable us to focus on the terminals that we manage and operate in Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, with the intent of continuing to improve our operational performance for the benefit of our customers,” said APM Terminals Chief Executive Officer Kim Fejfer. “The new office will likewise focus on business development within South and Southeast Asia, working closer with customers to jointly unlock value.”
   The Shanghai office will solely focus on APMT’s Chinese joint venture partners and the Chinese and Japanese markets.
   Asian ports, including the Indian Subcontinent, now account for more than half of all global container throughput, with a cumulative volume of 370 million TEUs in 2011. APM Terminals currently has interests in 18 operating facilities in six Asian countries, which handled 10.6 million TEUs (weighted by equity share) last year, representing 31.6 percent of the company’s total container volume. APM Terminals also operates an extensive network of Asian inland service operations in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and China. – Eric Johnson