SINGAPORE, Jan. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Singapore remained the world's busiest port with total vessel arrivals hit 1.15 billion gross tons (GT) in 2005, up from 1.04 billion GT recorded in 2004, Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua announced Thursday.

    "For the second time in Singapore's maritime history, vessel arrivals to our port, in terms of shipping tonnage, exceeded one billion gross tons," Lim said at a maritime industry event.

    Container throughput grew 8.7 percent to 23.2 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2005 in comparison with the previous year, and the total cargo traffic increased 7.6 percent to 423 million tons. Both are new records for the Singapore port.

    As for bunker sales, according to the minister, Singapore upheld its global leadership position last year with sales of ship fuel exceeding 25 million tons for the first time in its port history.

    The total tonnage of ships on Singapore's register was 33 million GT by the end of 2005, up 19 percent from a year ago, making the city state's merchant fleet of more than 3,200 ships, ranking the fifth largest in the world and the largest in Asia.

    Lim also announced the opening of four new special bunkering anchorage slots in the eastern sector of the Singapore port, which brings the total number of slots available in the sector to 16 and increases Singapore's special bunkering anchorage capacity by about 30 percent. Enditem