The firm, which runs ports in Singapore and abroad, said in a statement on its website (www.singaporepsa.com) that it handled 19.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a standard industry measure, compared with 17.81 million TEUs in the same period last year.

Singapore's government is spending S$2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to expand its home port's capacity by 40 per cent i five years, to cope with higher volumes expected from global trade.

PSA also runs ports in Belgium, China, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Pakistan, Portugal, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. -- REUTERS