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 today altogether four categories, Innovation in Maritime E-Commerce, Innovation, Safety at Sea and Countering Marine Pollution. The 2001 results were announced 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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