Singapore aims to build world’s largest automated port at Tuas

Singapore is working to turn its western port of Tuas into a “port of the future,” consolidating other ports in the city-state into a massive, fully automated hub incorporating artificial intelligence technology.

During a recent tour by car, the port had almost no people in sight even in the middle of a weekday. But driverless yellow vehicles could be seen passing by.

These automated guided vehicles (AGVs), capable of traveling at up to 25 kilometers per hour, are operated remotely. Their RFID systems communicate with underground transponders so that their locations can be tracked.

The vehicles can run for six to eight hours after charging for just 20 minutes at stations within the port, according to PSA International, the government-backed operator of Tuas Port. These charging stations are also fully automated, enabling the port to run around the clock.

PSA will “deliver new capacity and capabilities that strengthen Singapore’s standing as a critical node in global trade, and as a leading international maritime hub of choice,” says Nelson Quek, PSA’s regional CEO for Southeast Asia, in a press release.

While automation is being implemented at ports around the world, Tuas Port is shaping up to become the largest such project globally, once Singapore finishes consolidating operations from other ports there.

Despite its small size, Singapore has developed as a trade hub since the 19th century, leveraging its position as a gateway between East and West. The city-state is a major center for transshipment, transferring cargo from small vessels from nearby countries onto larger ships bound for Europe or the U.S.

Singapore is the world’s second-largest port city by cargo volume. It handled a record 41.12 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2024, up 5% on the year, according to the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA).

Although it is behind Shanghai, which reached 50 million TEUs, Tuas’s expansion is expected to boost Singapore’s capacity to 65 million TEUs once the port is completed in the 2040s.

Scale is not the project’s sole objective. It also aims to account for the drastic changes in the environment around ports in recent years, such as environmental and security issues and technological changes. The challenges it faces include how to operate one of the world’s largest ports with minimal staffing and how to defend against sophisticated cyberattacks.

At a control center by the port, workers monitor and operate vehicles and cranes from banks of screens — among the few jobs at Tuas that are still handled by humans. The MPA plans to implement a “Next Generation Vessel Traffic Management System” using AI and satellites to monitor traffic conditions in real time.

The government on Oct. 1 announced Smart Nation 2.0, its first new national digital strategy since 2014. The unveiling included a demonstration of satellite data showing where vessels were in the port, color-coded by type. AI is expected to help position vessels, prevent congestion and make their movement more efficient.

Singapore also aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Such electrified equipment as AGVs helps roughly halve carbon emissions compared with conventional diesel engines, according to the Transport Ministry.

PSA is also proactively collaborating with startups. It revamped in January its venture capital arm, which will work to commercialize intellectual property via collaborations with research institutions.

“Tuas will be the port of the future,” then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in 2022 at the opening ceremony for the first completed part of the port. It is important for resource-poor Singapore to remain a financial and trade hub.

Southeast Asian ports are increasingly drawing notice because of tensions in the Middle East and the shift of manufacturing away from China. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are all focusing on expanding ports and strengthening land transport.

Source: Asia.Nikkei

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