Container Security Initiative
Singapore has become America’s partner in a global effort to keep terrorists from meddling with or using cargo containers to smuggle weapons and explosives into the United States.

The Port of Singapore, already one of the most secure ports in the world, applies high-tech screening methods in cooperation with U.S. Customs.

Courtesy PSA Corp.

Nearly half of all goods entering the United States arrive by ocean-going cargo containers - some 5.7 million sea cargo containers per year. The United States Customs Service last January launched the Container Security Initiative (CSI), a new program to more effectively screen cargo containers and “to protect and secure the global trading system” against a terrorist threat.

The initial goal of the CSI is to sign up the top 20 ports to test new procedures for screening container cargo. On June 4, 2002, the Government of Singapore agreed to join the CSI program. Thus the port of Singapore became the first port in Asia to participate.

The Port of Singapore is one of the world’s largest. While it ranks second to Hong Kong in terms of number of cargo containers handled, Singapore ranks as the world’s busiest transshipment/ transit port. As such, Singapore represents a key chokepoint in the global trading system for detecting potential items of concern. Last year, roughly 330,000 sea cargo containers entered America from the port of Singapore alone, according to the U.S. Customs Service.

But screening such massive numbers of cargo containers is a major challenge. Under current port inspection methods, only about two percent of the six million containers entering U.S. ports each year can be physically inspected without degrading cargo flow.

So, an industry-driven initiative dubbed Smart and Secure Tradelanes (SST) was announced earlier this year that promises to vastly improve cargo container security without disrupting cargo traffic flows.

The SST was made possible with an adaptation of state-of-the-art technology pioneered by the U.S. Department of Defense, called the Total Asset Visibility (TAV) network. Based on the TAV platform, a privately held California-based company called Savi Technology has developed a global tracking system for commercial containers known as SmartSeal.

After packing the container, shippers affix the mechanism to the container handle. It acts as an electronic padlock; if a container's contents are tampered with, the device emits a radio-wave signal indicating where and when the seal was broken and which container is suspect. The system involves sophisticated scanners, sensor devices and electronic seals that alert shippers immediately if a cargo container is opened or tampered with.

Working with shippers, carriers, service providers, foreign and U.S. port terminal operators; containers will be tracked and automatically authenticated from the point of manufacturing, port of loading, transshipment port and to final discharge in the U.S.

Singapore’s PSA Corporation Ltd. joined forces with two other global terminal operators – Hutchinson Ports Holdings and P&O Ports – to launch the SST pilot program.

“PSA Corporation is participating in this project to ensure that we remain on the leading edge of information technology that can improve the speed, efficiency and security of port operations for the world’s carriers and shippers,” says Ng Chee Keong, group president and CEO of PSA Corporation Ltd.

The “automated information technology infrastructure,” as the technology is affectionately known, is expected to link Singapore, Rotterdam and Hong Kong with Seattle/Tacoma – the first ports involved in the massive program