Singapore and Rotterdam boost efforts on Green and Digital Shipping Corridor

29 April 2025

On 25 March 2025, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (“MPA”) and the Port of Rotterdam announced the inking of a Cooperation Agreement to further strengthen their efforts on the Rotterdam-Singapore Green and Digital Shipping Corridor (“Corridor”). Set up in August 2022, the Corridor aims to accelerate transformation efforts for maritime decarbonisation and digitalisation. Since then, 28 partners across the entire container shipping value chain have been brought together to drive the deployment of sustainable fuels on the 15,000km shipping route and implement digital solutions for improved efficiency.

The collective ambition is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of large container vessels on the Corridor by 20-30% by 2030, while accelerating the adoption of global standards and solutions to facilitate efficient port calls, flow of goods, and enable paperless handling.

Encouraging the uptake of low- and zero-emission fuels

To support the decarbonisation of shipping, the collaboration is concentrated on testing and accelerating the adoption of sustainable fuels. The goal is to ensure such fuels are available, accepted, and affordable for large-scale use. The focus will be on bio- and e-variants of ammonia, methanol, and methane, with working groups formed for each fuel type.

In the upcoming phase, the partners intend to carry out additional studies and trials for the bunkering of bio-methane, methanol, and ammonia to support their future use along the shipping corridor. They also aim to develop and mobilise financial instruments to address the cost barriers linked to using low- and near-zero emission fuels.

Efficient and digitalised port calls

On the digital front, the trial on the exchange of port-to-port data to exchange vessel arrival and departure timestamps has been successful. Both ports have also put in place ship-to-shore data exchange infrastructure to facilitate efficient and secure submission of port clearance information, saving time and minimising data entry errors through automated data filling.

The first phase to trial the use of global standards and digital solutions began in March 2025, with an enhanced solution scheduled for testing in the second half of 2025.

Reference materials

The joint press release is available from the MPA website www.mpa.gov.sg.