Melvin Vu News

Cruise Shipping Asia-Pacific interviews Melvin Vu of SATS-Creuers Cruise Services on trends in port development & management. What do you see as some of the current trends in terminal design and operation? Melvin Vu: Parallel to the strong overall growth of the cruise industry in the region, cruise lines are significantly adding to the vessel capacity and are deploying bigger ships here. It is safe to say that various destinations in Asia are fast becoming integral to cruise itineraries — as such, the burgeoning cruise demand is increasingly shaping and influencing terminal design and operations. What do you see as some of the current trends in terminal design and operation?

The 28,000-square-meter terminal, which was built at a cost of 500 million Singapore dollars (400 million U.S. dollars) and operated by the SATS-Creuers Cruise Services, will effectively double Singapore's berth capacity. The terminal has the capability to dock ships of up to 220,000 gross register tonnage (GRT) and measuring up to 360 meters in length with a hull draft of up to 11.5 meters. It also has a spacious arrival and departure hall comprising 80 check-in counters and up to 40 immigration counters…