The Singapore port authority will grant a 10% concession on port dues for dry bulk carriers starting from 15 April 2016, in view of the severe downturn in the shipping sector.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said the concession will be applicable to vessels carrying out cargo works with a port stay of not more than five days, and the concession will be in place for one year.

“MPA recognised that the dry bulk segment is grappling with very difficult market conditions. Hence, the port dues concession granted to bulk carriers is part of the short term cost relief package to help shipping lines tide over this challenging economic environment,” a MPA statement said.

The latest government aid follows MPA’s announcement in January this year of an additional 10% concession on port dues granted to containerships carrying out cargo works with a port stay of not more than five days. The concession was on top of existing port dues concessions such as the Green Port Programme incentives and the 20% concession first introduced in 1996.

MPA also extended concessions for OSVs for a year-long period starting from 1 November 2015, for which the incremental concessionary port dues rate of SGD0.50 per day per gt applies to OSVs from 90 days to 180 days.

“Taken together with the existing concessions including those granted to offshore support vessels and container vessels, these concessions are expected to yield SGD18m ($13.3m) in savings for shipping companies over one year,” MPA said.

The dry bulk shipping sector is an important part of Singapore’s maritime industry, with bulk carriers accounting for about 30% of the country’s total vessel arrival tonnage. In 2015, Singapore received 16,560 bulkers with a total tonnage of around 775m gt.

“The roll out of these measures demonstrates Singapore’s commitment to help the maritime sector through this challenging time, and its importance in contributing to our economy and creating good jobs for Singaporeans. MPA will continue to work closely with our industry partners and stakeholders to support the long-term development of maritime Singapore,” MPA said.

The authority added that both the dry bulk and container sectors will continue to grapple with slower demand growth, which will be worsened by excess fleet supply in 2016.

“China’s slowdown has hit the dry bulk sector particularly hard and the dry bulk trade is expected to grow by just 1.1% in 2016, against fleet expansion of 3.6%,” MPA said.