PSA Corporation’s Portnet.com Wins Inaugural Innovation Award at 13th Seatrade Awards

Portnet.com Pte Ltd (Portnet.com), a fully-owned subsidiary of PSA Corporation, became the first company to win the inaugural ‘Innovation in Maritime E-Commerce’ award at the 13th Seatrade Awards for its submission, ‘PORTNET®’.

The ‘Seatrade Awards’ is an annual event organised by the Seatrade Organisation, a UK-based company. It was introduced in 1988 to stimulate and encourage innovation in the shipping industry by giving recognition to companies and individuals that have made substantial contributions in the fields of safety at sea, countering marine pollution and innovation. There are altogether four categories, Innovation in Maritime E-Commerce, Innovation, Safety at Sea and Countering Marine Pollution.

The 2001 results were announced on 9 April in London (UK) at a dinner attended by more than 450 guests from the international maritime community. The new award category was introduced to recognise advances in the use of the Internet to facilitate developments in the shipping industry.

Mr Robert Yap, Executive Vice-President (Information Technology), PSA Corporation and Managing Director, Portnet.com (left) receives award from Professor Lord Currie, Dean, City University Business School

Mr Robert Yap, Executive Vice-President (Information Technology), PSA Corporation, and Managing Director, Portnet.com, said, "PSA is honoured to receive the prestigious Seatrade Award, which reaffirms our commitment to research and innovation. We are proud to be able to develop PORTNET® into a world-class knowledge-based IT (Information Technology) system that is poised to establish a global presence for the port and shipping community.

We would like to thank our customers for their support and valuable feedback in the design and development of the PORTNET® system. PSA Corporation uses IT as a strategic tool to enhance our operations, boost productivity and provide our customers with fast, flexible and reliable world-class service. This award will spur us on to develop more breakthrough applications to further value-add to our customers’ operations and exceed their expectations."

PORTNET® is the world’s first nation-wide, business-to-business (B2B), port and shipping e-community, providing integrated services to shipping lines, hauliers, freight forwarders, shippers and local government agencies in Singapore. Encapsulating 16 years of IT and operational domain knowledge, the system provides for scalability and ensures reliability in information handling. PORTNET® seamlessly handles all electronic container data passing through PSA Corporation, operator of the world’s largest transhipment hub handling a volume of over 17 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) in Singapore annually.

Implemented since 1984 and upgraded over the years, the internet-enabled PORTNET® currently has 7,000 users generating nearly 69 million transactions. The variety of its modules includes online ordering and documentation systems, and facilitation of fulfilment and track-and-trace services. PORTNET® benefits all players in the port and shipping e-community through timely and accurate information flow, reduced cost of operations, efficient operational flow and faster response time.

PSA Corporation is extending the use of PORTNET® to strategic partners overseas, for example, with the Port of Dalian Authority and Dalian Container Terminal (China), Port of Seattle (USA) and Sinport Sinergie Portuali (Italy). With direct assess, PORTNET® users anywhere in the world can make speedier, more effective decisions and track their vessels and cargo on a 24-hour, paperless and real-time basis.

The PSA Group was previously conferred awards for (i) its development of a telescopic spreader with total shock absorption capability in 1998, (ii) ‘Flow-Through Container Gate System’ in 1999, and (iii) the treatment of tanker sludge by thermal extraction in 2000.

Background

PSA Corporation operates the world’s largest container transhipment hub in Singapore and provides every shipper an unrivalled choice of 248 shipping lines with connections to over 600 ports in 123 countries. This includes daily sailings to every major port in the world. As a testimony of its excellent efficiency and quality service, PSA Corporation was also voted the ‘Best Container Terminal’ at the prestigious Lloyd’s List Maritime Asia Awards 2000 for two consecutive years. PSA Corporation was also awarded ‘Best Container Terminal Operator (Asia)’ for the 12th time, and Singapore ‘Best Seaport (Asia)’ for the 13th time at the Asian Freight Industry Awards 2001. PSA Corporation was the first Singaporean multi-national corporation to be conferred the prestigious Singapore Quality Award for business excellence.

Besides its operations in Singapore, the PSA Group participates in 13 port projects in eight countries around the world in Belgium, Brunei, China, India, Italy, Korea, Portugal and Yemen.