A Singapore-devised initiative to keep global ports open in the face of the coronavirus pandemic has seen its membership more than double in little more than a month.

The Port Authorities Roundtable (PAR) Covid-19 declaration aims to ensure that merchant vessels can continue to call at member ports and port operations remain undisrupted.

To date, more than 50 port authorities from Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas have thrown their weight behind the declaration.

The initiative was launched by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) in late April 2020 with an initial 20 participants.

Dr Lam Pin Min, Singapore’s senior minister of state for transport, said: “Now is the time, more than ever, for global supply chains to remain intact.

Critical supplies that flow through ports support the battle against Covid-19 and the gradual re-opening of economies

Dr Lam Pin Min

“This is critical for the flow of essential goods across the globe, and for global economic recovery.

“With uncertainty over how the global Covid-19 pandemic will play out in the future, it is crucial that countries around the world remain committed to keeping their ports open for trade to ensure the continued flow of goods from one country to another.

“Critical and essential supplies that flow through the ports support the battle against Covid-19 and the gradual re-opening of economies.”

Under the joint declaration, the signatories are committed to working together and ensuring that vessels can continue to berth at port terminals to carry out cargo operations and keep the global supply chain going.

They are also required to adopt best practices including precautionary measures for the shipping community, advisories and assistance for shore personnel and ship crew, and safe handling of cargoes during this period.

Ports around the world have suffered various lockdown arrangements or movement restrictions due to the virus that have severely curtailed economic activities from consumption to investments to production-related activities.

Analysts have said that this reduction in consumption and capital expenditure on this scale is bound to have an impact on all ports worldwide.

Speaking in early May, Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, group managing director of Malaysian terminal operator Westports, said he was hopeful for some recovery in the second half of the year.

But he said the severity of the volume contraction will depend on how protracted the Covid-19 pandemic is going to be and how social and economic activities adjust to a post-lockdown world.

“The world is unlikely to be able to consume in the way it used to and it might take a while for it to get to the consumption levels of 2019,” he said.