Peru Export Opportunities to Singapore

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Cargo unit worldwide and fifth busiest within the Asian region.

Seletar Airport is the civilian airport that is based at Seletar within Singapore’s Northeastern region; Changi Airport Group manages the airport. The airport was established and completed by 1928 as the Royal Air Force Station; it was the first international airport in Singapore. The airport also serves as a general aviation unit particularly used for training purposes and chartered flights. The airport now operates 24/7, it has one runway (includes 28 aircraft stands), has a warehouse space measuring 100 sq/m and it has the ability to handle over 800 tons of air freight each day. Currently, the airport is being refurbished in order to relieve Changi Airport of operational pressure. Its capacity will be optimized and structured to allow slower and smaller aircraft operate at the airport.

Another airport that exists in the country is Paya Lebar. However, currently the airport only takes in cargo planes occasionally when the Changi international airport has reached its full capacity since it is now a Singapore Air Force base. Paya Lebar air base is located in the eastern part of the country and before the construction of Changi international airport; it used to be the main airport in Singapore. The air base made a gradual shift from a civilian airport to a military air base gradually from 1962 to 1981- when it converted fully to a military facility. The airbase is located near the largest airport in Singapore to provide air security to the country.

Singapore Airlines Cargo

Singapore airline cargo is a subsidiary airline of the Singapore Airlines, as its name suggests it is a cargo airline that was incorporated in 2001. Singapore Airlines Cargo operates about 12 air freighters and also manages all the cargo transited on Singapore Airlines and Scoot aircraft. The cargo airline has its headquarters at terminal five of Changi International Airport. Additionally, the cargo airlines own two massive warehouses referred to as Super hub one and super hub two. Super hub one was officially opened in 1991 and has a handling capacity of 450, 000 tons annually. On the other hand, super hub two was opened in 2001 due to the increase of cargo; it has a handling capacity of 750, 000 tons per year. As a result, Singapore Airlines Cargo warehouses have a combined handling capacity of 1.2 million tons annually. SIA also makes over 900 flights every week from the Changi International Airport (Koninck et al., 2010).

SIA also entered into a strategic partnership with SAS Cargo Group and Lufthansa cargo to form a subsidiary known as WOW alliance in 2001. WOW Alliance offers various cargo options to passengers, exporters, and importers. Some of the company’s products include Coolrider and Time Rider that targets general shipments, temperature sensitive cargo, and heavy shipments respectively; moreover, it also has a product called Secure River, which targets premium products that require secured shipments.

Singapore Airline cargo is a strong brand and has a very good reputation globally, this is evidenced by the amount of awards it has received across the globe, and, for instance, SIA was named the best Air carrier in Asia by the AFI (Koninck et al., 2010). Moreover, SIA was also named the best cargo carrier globally in 2002. SIA was also the first non-USA and China freighter airline to offer direct flights from China to the USA and vice versa. The SIA Cargo offers over 900 flights on a weekly basis from its hub at the Changi Airport. Moreover, the SIA flies to over 100 cities in 30 countries, with a dedicated fleet of the modern B747-400 freighters and also more than 100 large passenger aircraft from Singapore Airlines.

Imports

Traditionally, Singapore was considered as a transshipment center for most parts of southeast Asia. Currently, Singapore can be considered to have the second-busiest port in the world in terms of the bulk and volumes of ships handled. If Singapore was to lack natural resources, it means that the country has to rely heavily on international trade for much of its income, and this is evidenced by the fact that it has the highest GDP to trade ration in the world (Sugimoto, 2011). Due to the heavy reliance on international trade, Singapore has signed agreements with several countries to engage in free trade, including Peru. Other countries involved in free trade agreements with Singapore include the U.S, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Singapore stands as a free port zone due to its free trade policy. The only duty that is charged is the standard goods and service tax that was introduced in 1994 and it is targeted on imports, other than this; there are virtually no other restrictions or duties charged. This implies that traders can freely export and import goods and service to and from Singapore. However, for security and environmental reasons, exporters and importers require permits from the exercise and customs department. In order to save time all permits are submitted and approved through Trade Net, an electronic interchange network that only takes two days to process licenses.

It is also important to note that ninety-nine percent of goods that are brought into Singapore enter duty-free; only, alcohol, motor vehicle, and tobacco are changed duties on imports. Most imports are free because Singapore adopted the harmonized system of classifying imports, and it also uses the customs valuation code to determine customs duties (Sugimoto, 2011). In addition, genuine trade samples and gifts valued at no more than four hundred dollars are not subject to any form of documentation, tax, or duties.

Furthermore, Singapore does not impose any quota restrictions, and due to this majority of the goods and services are imported under open general license. Restricted imports include firearms, chewing gums, and endangered animals. In addition, there are certain goods that need specific licenses, and they include, fruits- both fresh and chilled, meat and medicines. Acquiring an import license is easy in Singapore as it only takes two days to process.

The government of Singapore designated five free trade zones within the country, which are in Keppel, Changi, Pasir Panjang, Sembawang, and Jurong within these free trade zones there are ten custom gates of which eight are ports (Sugimoto, 2011). The ports of Singapore are overseen by the Maritime and Port Authority, which is responsible for assessing both exports and imports to ensure that they meet all the required standards and ensure compliance. In addition to the maritime authority, Singapore also opened a logistic park that has full FTZ status. The significance of the logistic park