Singapore signs record 7 accords on maritime and port modernization

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The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) recently inked five memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and two maritime and port agreements, including on the Tuas Terminal Phase II development, with local and international partners.

These MOUs and agreements signed April 25 will strengthen Singapore’s connectivity, deepen maritime R&D capabilities, and create a vibrant innovation culture, in line with the vision of the Sea Transport Industry Transformation Map to enhance competitiveness and drive new growth areas, said MPA.

Andrew Tan, chief executive of MPA, said, “These MOUs will help us to take the maritime sector to a new level of development in areas such as automation, data analytics, intelligent systems and cybersecurity. Along with support for maritime start-ups, MPA hopes to create an enabling environment for both existing and new players to co-exist side by side as part of a vibrant innovative cluster. That way, Maritime Singapore will be able to stay ahead of the curve as a world class hub port and international maritime center.”

Signed with Penta Ocean (Japan), Hyundai (South Korea), and Boskalis (The Netherlands) is an agreement for the Tuas Terminal Phase II development worth SGD1.46 billion (US$1.1 billion).

With Phase I well underway, this second phase of development will increase the total port capacity by another 21 million TEUs by 2027, MPA said.

Works under Phase II include the design and construction of 387 hectares of reclaimed land bounded by 9.1 kilometers of caisson walls. The latest innovations and technologies, such as e-cranes and reclaimer barges, will be employed to maximize the use of dredged materials for filling above sea level.

“The Tuas Terminal will be developed in four phases over the span of some 30 years, with the Phase 1 reclamation works scheduled to be completed by the early 2020s and Phase 2 in the mid-2020s. Work is already ongoing for Tuas Terminal Phase 1, which started in Feb 2015. As of Mar 2018, more than 70 per cent of the 221 caissons were installed to form the wharves of Phase 1,” MPA said.

When fully developed by the 2040s, Tuas Terminal will be able to handle up to 65 million TEUs annually.

MPA also renewed its MOU with the Research Council of Norway (RCN) for the seventh term for three years till 2021. The MOU will see MPA and RCN working together in maritime R&D, education, and training.

At the same time, MPA has awarded the Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund to the consortium of ST Electronics, the electronics arm of ST Engineering, and Kongsberg Norcontrol (Norway) to pursue the Next Generation Vessel Traffic Management System (NGVTMS) Innovation Programme.

Under the program, the consortium will co-invest about SGD9.9 million (US$7.5 million) to set up a NGVTMS Lab which will seek to set new frontiers for navigation safety and security as well as to improve the efficiency of maritime operations.

MPA will also be partnering the Finnish technology group Wärtsilä Corporation to promote the development of maritime technologies in the areas of digital acceleration, cyber-physical security, and intelligent vessel and port operations.

In addition, NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and a partner of MPA, is collaborating with PortXL, a maritime-only accelerator with offices in Rotterdam and Singapore, to increase the diversity of Singapore’s maritime innovation ecosystem.

The collaboration rides on the back of NUS Enterprise and MPA’s previously announced Maritime Technology Acceleration Program, known as PIER71 (Port Innovation and Ecosystem Reimagined at BLOCK71). Both parties will seek to encourage start-ups globally to participate in pilot projects and provide access to the maritime industry in Singapore and in Rotterdam.

MPA will likewise be partnering Keppel Offshore & Marine and the Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine Singapore to jointly develop autonomous vessels capable of undertaking harbor operations such as channelling, berthing, mooring and towing, for safer, more efficient, and more cost effective operations.

In addition to the above MOUs, MPA has also inked a memorandum of intent with eight classification societies to develop the Singapore Maritime Data Hub (SG-MDH). The eight classification societies are American Bureau of Shipping, Bureau Veritas, China Classification Society, DNV GL, Korean Register of Shipping, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, and Registro Italiano Navale.

Announced earlier this year, the SG-MDH is a one-stop data repository with a centralized application programming interface gateway and data management capabilities. This will help enable the development and test-bedding of innovative digital apps and services for the maritime industry.

Photo courtesy of MPA