Lee warns PSA could lose business if it fails to keep modernising

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned that Singapore’s port risks losing business if PSA becomes complacent while regional competitors narrow the gap. He urged continued technological transformation, while saying workers should not face the effects of change alone.

His remarks place the competitive challenge alongside a call for cooperation between PSA management, unions and employees. Lee said rival ports were making progress in automation and digitalisation and could already be ahead in some areas. He pointed to Shanghai’s Yangshan port as an example.

At the same time, he said PSA had adopted technology and upgraded its operations to keep Singapore’s port efficient and competitive. The concern he raised is that those efforts may not be enough if competitors keep advancing. Lee made the remarks at a dinner marking the 80th anniversary of the Singapore Port Workers Union, which represents PSA employees.

He called for management, unions and workers to work together in a relationship of trust and to build a disciplined, skilled workforce. His message linked technological change to the capacity of employees and their representatives to participate in the transition, rather than treating modernisation as a matter of equipment alone.

The two accounts describe the warning in closely aligned terms: both report that Lee linked complacency with the risk of losing business and stressed that workers should not bear the burden of change by themselves. CNA supplies more detail on the proposed workplace approach, including trust and workforce skills, and identifies Yangshan as an example of competitors’ progress.

The indexbox.io account also records the competitive warning and the need for technological transformation, while emphasizing the prospect of lost business. Lee also recalled an earlier instance of commercial pressure: PSA lost several major shipping customers to Malaysia’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas in the early 2000s.

He cited that episode while discussing painful decisions, presenting it as a precedent for the consequences of failing to maintain competitiveness. The accounts do not describe a new customer loss or a specific current decision by PSA.

The immediate challenge, as Lee framed it, is to sustain the port’s efficiency and competitiveness while managing technological change with workers and unions involved. The accounts report no specific investment programme, target or implementation timetable.

They leave the next steps to PSA and its workforce representatives, while making clear that Lee sees both competitive performance and cooperation at work as central to the port’s future.