Singapore’s container traffic rose 9.9% in 2010, reversing the previous year’s slump, as the island-state vies with Shanghai to be the world’s busiest port.

Traffic last year rose to 28.4 million 20-foot equivalent units from 25.9 million TEUs in 2009, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said in an e-mailed statement today. Total cargo handled climbed 6.4% to 502.5 million metric tons.

Singapore became the world’s busiest container port in 2005 after predecessor Hong Kong lost out to cheaper harbours in southern China. A surge in China’s exports boosted volumes at Shanghai’s port, intensifying competition with the southeast Asian nation this year.

Singapore’s economy grew 14.7% last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Dec. 31. That would make the city of 5 million people the fastest-growing economy in the world after Qatar’s according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

Sales of ship fuel, or bunkers, surged to a record as container traffic recovered from last year’s decline, according to the port authority’s data. The total volume of bunkers sold rose 12.3% to 40.9 million tons.

Vessel arrivals increased 7.5% to 1.92 billion gross tons, with container ships and tankers accounting for 32% and 29.7% of arrivals respectively, according to the statement.