MPA pumps S$2.4b into new Tuas Terminal, more funds into green tech

THE Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has inked a S$2.42 billion deal to develop the first phase of the upcoming Tuas Terminal, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The contract was awarded to a joint venture (JV) between Belgian firm Dredging International's Asia Pacific arm and South Korea's Daelim Industrial. The JV will also tap on local firms' capabilities, the authority said.

Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Josephine Teo, noted in a speech on Thursday that the project includes reclaiming 294ha of land, which is larger than the Brani, Keppel and Tanjong Pagar terminals combined.

The project is expected to be completed by 2021, according to media reports, and the government plans to move all of Singapore's port activities to Tuas South by 2027. When the Tuas Terminal is completed, it is expected to be able to handle up to 65 million containers - known in industry parlance as 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) - per year, nearly twice the Singapore port's throughput volume in 2014.

Speaking at the MPA's inaugural Singapore Maritime Technology Conference, held as part of the annual Singapore Maritime Week, Mrs Teo also said that the MPA would pump more funds into research and green technology.

The MPA will launch in June a new series of calls for proposals under its S$150 million Maritime Innovation and Technology Fund to cover new areas for potential research and testing innovative technology, she said.

The authority will also extend its Green Technology Programme by another five years till 2021, and pump in another S$25 million to bring the total funding to S$50 million, Mrs Teo said, adding that MPA will raise the co-funding level to up to 70 per cent for the adoption of green technologies that are developed or tested locally.