PSA moves 16.3 percent more containers in 2003

Singapore's PSA Corp Ltd, which runs the world's second-busiest container port after Hong Kong, said on Wednesday it handled 28.5 million containers world-wide in 2003, up 16.3 percent on the previous year.
The strong performance came despite weakness in the global economy following the Iraq War and a drop in Asian trade due to the deadly Sars outbreak last year.
The PSA, which has investments in eight countries outside Singapore - Belgium, Brunei, China, India, Italy, Portugal, South Korea and Yemen - saw overseas volumes rise 35.1 percent to 10.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2003.
For the month of December, PSA moved 1.59 million TEUs through the city state and 0.94 million TEUs at its overseas terminals, the port operator said in a statement.
PSA is also keen to take a stake in Shanghai's new multi-billion dollar Yangshan Port, a move analysts say would strengthen the firm's presence in one of the world's fastest growing economies and reduce its reliance on domestic volumes.