Singapore Strait
The eastern continuation of the Strait of Malacca, its four traffic separation schemes, the Phillip Channel, and the armed robbery record that concentrates there.
The Singapore Strait is the waterway running east from Tanjung Piai, the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, to the entrance of the South China Sea near Horsburgh Lighthouse. It is a separate waterway from the Strait of Malacca , not its eastern end, and the two carry distinct routeing measures within one IMO-adopted system of about 250 nautical miles.
Four of the eight traffic separation schemes in that system lie in the Singapore Strait: In the Singapore Strait (Main Strait), Off St John’s Island, Off Changi and Pulau Batam, and At Horsburgh Lighthouse Area. The Phillip Channel within it is the narrowest constriction of the whole corridor at about 1.7 miles, and the deep water routes there lie inside the eastbound traffic lane rather than beside it. Singapore VTS operates STRAITREP sectors 7 to 9 on VHF channels 73, 14 and 10.
The strait also carries the corridor’s security problem. Of the 108 incidents ReCAAP recorded in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in 2025, 107 were in the Singapore Strait, almost all involving ships underway at reduced speed in the eastbound lane. The full article will cover the routeing measures in detail, the boundary delimitations with Indonesia of 1973, 2009 and 2014, the anchorages and port limits, the casualty record, and the traffic and bunkering that make it the busiest sector of the corridor.