PNG’s PORTS RANKED AMOUNG BEST IN WORLD

The operational performance of PNG’s two international sea ports – Port Moresby (Motukea) and Lae – have been placed in the top 50% of ports in the Oceania Region. Both ports are owned and managed by PNG Ports Corporation Limited (PNG Ports), and operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) under a 25-year contractual agreement which began in 2017.

Motukea and Lae out-performed the ports of Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Botany, Adelaide and Fremantle in Australia, and New Zealand’s Otago Harbour, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland and Lyttelton port.

They were among the world’s 405 international ports compared in a report by the World Bank – “Container Port Performance Index 2023: A Comparative Assessment of Performance based on Vessel Time in Port”.
These container ports are critical to the global supply chains and essential to the growth strategies of any emerging economy, and Motukea and Lae ranked 289 and 326 respectively in the comparison.

The Report compared the total container ship time in port which is directly influenced by the quality or cranes deployed, and the speed at which the cranes operate.

According to the Report, high-quality container port infrastructure operating efficiently has been a pre-requisite for successful export-led growth strategies, and countries that follow such a strategy will have higher levels of economic growth than those that do not.

CEO of PNG Ports, Neil Papenfus, welcomed the Report saying he was impressed with the ranking gained by Motukea and Lae, which were compared against the busiest and more modernized ports in the world.
He said this was the result of the ongoing investments towards greater efficiency at the two ports, in partnership with ICTSI over the last 7 years.

The aim of the Report was to pin-point areas that needed improving at container ports because the negative effect of poor performance in a port affects the global supply chain.

Container shipping services follow a fixed schedule with specific berth windows at each port of call on the route, therefore, port performance at one port could disrupt the entire schedule.

This, in turn, increases the cost of imports and exports, reduces the competitiveness of the country and its neighboring countries, and hinders economic growth and poverty reduction.