Singapore's next port of call may be rising in the west
Surveys underway in Tuas View Extension, which looks set to become next big port development
Ronnie Lim and Vincent Wee, Business Times 16 Dec 09;
(SINGAPORE) Tuas View Extension - the hockey stick-shaped piece of land at the westernmost tip of Singapore - looks set to become the country's next major port development.
The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) is scheduled to start its own soil investigation and seismic surveys there anytime now, reinforcing market talk of a relocation in the medium to long term of Singapore's port operations in the city centre to the west.
Separately, Sembcorp Marine is this month also starting construction of the $750 million first phase of its new yard at a 206-ha site there, just as JTC Corporation is exploring developing a shared waterfront facility for marine and oil & gas firms at the location.
According to the MPA tender for a consultant to carry out the soil investigation and seismic study, the port authority is targeting for work to start in Novem-ber/December, with the contract period covering 14 months.
'There will be reclamation in that area, although not immediately after the soil investigation project,' it added.
The soil investigation will be carried out in the anchorages and JTC working area at Tuas View Extension, while a large portion of the seismic survey is within the anchorage, the tender document said.
'There are already a lot of ships anchored there as the water is deep, and the location looks ideal,' said one source who has heard of the possible shift of part of MPA's operations to the area.
Another industry official added that he had heard talk of the planned MPA move as far back as a couple of years ago.
From an economic viewpoint, a relocation of MPA's city-centre port operations will free the prime, not to mention expensive, land there for other commercial development.
When asked about the port move, an MPA spokesman would only say that 'there is no firm plan for Tuas View area at the moment. We will share details when ready'.
SembMarine just last month announced its plans to build a massive, integrated yard at Tuas View Extension to which it will relocate its present Jurong operations.
Development of its 73.3-ha first phase will be completed by 2013, with the entire new yard to be built over 12 years. It is understood that JTC is about to complete reclaiming land needed for the phase 2 development of SembMarine's yard.
Earlier in June, JTC said that given the shortage of industrial waterfront land, it was also looking at building a shared waterfront facility at Tuas View for small and medium enterprises to load and unload their goods, and by marine and offshore engineering companies for their manufacturing operations.
An update on this project is expected from JTC next month.
An industry source said that setting up an offshore supply base on the site would make sense.
There used to be a supply base at Shipyard Road in Jurong which has since closed, when all the offshore supply facilities here relocated to the Loyang Offshore Supply Base in the east. The west coast, however, is now under-served, especially with the growth of the offshore industry there.
Meanwhile, reflecting the buzz in the area, JTC has just called a tender for soil investigation for a proposed road at phase 3 of the Tuas View Extension site.
