ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

NCB Holdings Bhd expects the construction of Wharf 8A in Port Klang by its subsidiary Northport (Malaysia) Bhd to be operational in September this year.

NCB Holdings chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said Northport would be able to gradually handle close to 5.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers once the wharf is completed.

“Wharf 8A, which will inject an additional container handling capacity of 600,000 TEUs, is important for Northport to retain its customers.

“The wharf will contribute to the efforts in strengthening the institutional capacity at Northport,” he told a media briefing on the progress of Wharf 8A at Northport here today.

Wharf 8A, which forms part of Container Terminal 4 at Northport involving an investment of nearly RM350 million, will be able to berth vessels with deeper draft of up to 17 metres which in turn will improve connectivity.

The wharf, together with the planned re-development of container wharves eight, nine and 10, will eventually offer seamless container wharf configuration to support ultra large vessels (14,000 TEUs and above) which are being deployed by main line operators currently.

Ahmad Sarji said the contractors of the wharf took three mitigation plans to ensure the smooth progress of the wharf including increasing the number of workers, extending the working hours and having additional team to work from southern end of the wharf.

He said he was confident in the integrity part of the wharf structure based on the proven track record shown by the contractor.

Ahmad Sarji said Northport aimed to handle about 3.4 million TEUs of containers this year compared with 3.09 million TEUs last year. BERNAMA

AWAITING CLEARER PICTURE: Management goes ahead with expansion plans and moves to improve net profit

WHILE the cloud of uncertainty continues to hover over the fate of Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB), it’s business as usual for the management of the country’s oldest port.

“We are just as anxious as you are about the new owner and their plans for Penang Port,” said PPSB’s managing director Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar last Friday before a cocktail reception for the port’s users. Also present was PPSB’s chairman Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya.

Confirming a Business Times report that PPSB is yet to be officially notified that Seaport Terminal (Johor) Sdn Bhd, owned by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, had won the bid to privatise the 226-year-old port, he said:

“We have read that the government is still negotiating with the new owner, but we remain in the dark as to what is exactly happening.

“In the meantime, it’s business as usual for us, as we go about with our plans to expand the port and better the net profit of RM15 milllion which we recorded last year,” he said.

While projecting a modest growth rate of between two per cent and three per cent for this year, Ahmad cautioned that if the global economy worsens, growth could remain flat.

The Transport Ministry, in a written reply at the Dewan Rakyat this month, had confirmed that Seaport Terminal had won the bid to privatise PPSB. The ministry said that one of the conditions to be included in the privatisation agreement was that the successful company must bear the cost of dredging Penang Port.

It was reported that the RM351 million dred-ging scheme for the northern part of the Penang channel has yet to take off although the amount had been allocated under the 10th Malaysia Plan. The project to deepen the channel from the current 11.5m to 14.5m is vital to bring large transshipments into the port.

“We have a five-year plan to improve the port’s performance,” Ahmad said, “and the new machines (seven units of Super Post-Panamax cranes), which are currently under-utilised because of the much needed capital dredging, is yet to be carried out.

“We are not worried about who the port’s new owner will be as all we want is to get on with our job of realising the best that Penang Port can offer and for the good of the state, we should all get on with business and the sooner the capital dredging can be carried out, the better.”

Ahmad also said that it was unfair to blame his staff on the port’s performance and compare it with other ports. “It has been a challenge for PPSB to manage the expectation of port users who have been wanting to see the port grow for a long time.”

Penang Port was incorporated in 1993 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Minister of Finance Inc. The management and operations of the port were corporatised in 1994 under the government’s privatisation programme, and Penang Port took over all the facilities and services from the Penang Port Commission (the regulatory body for the port) which licensed Penang Port to operate, manage and maintain all port facilities and services. The 30-year concession period ends in 2023.

By: Business Times

It will reactivate berth expansion plan on economic recovery

PETALING JAYA: NCB Holdings Bhd projects a volume increase of 10% to 15% and will reactivate its expansion plan at Northport (M) Bhd this year in line with the current economic recovery trends.

Northport, a port operating subsidiary of NCB, posted a 5% decline in volume to 2.9 million twenty-foot equivalents units (TEUs) last year due to the global economic downturn.

Chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said the positive volume outlook this year was for containerised and conventional cargo.

We only expand to commensurate the business that we have: NCB HOLDINGS BHD CHAIRMAN TUN AHMAD SARJI ABDUL HAMID

“And since there are perceptible trends in economic recovery, the group has decided to reactivate the expansion of berth 8A this year,” he told reporters after the company AGM yesterday.

The expansion of berth 8A or container terminal 3 is part of Northport’s RM585mil five-year expansion plan announced in 2008. The project was postponed due to the global economic meltdown.

Ahmad Sarji said works on berth 8A would commence in two months for completion in about 18 months.

“The capital expenditure (capex) on the project has been revised where the cost will be determined by tendered price.

“Northport will continue to be prudent. We only expand to commensurate the business that we have and to retain our customers,” he said, adding that Northport’s 30-year lease agreement would expire in 2013 and it was doing the necessary to renew the lease.

Northport managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader said the revised capex on berth 8A was line with the drop in raw materials prices and construction cost.

He also forecast closing the port’s first quarter this year with a 24% year-on-year volume increase.

“But, it must be noted that the previous corresponding period was the worst quarter that the port recorded last year in tandem with the global economic downturn,” he said.

On NCB’s other business in container haulage and logistics via Kontena Nasional Bhd (KN), Ahmad Sarji said the company now was on the fast track to fully utilise its sizeable assets in an effort to move into third-party logistics (3PL) business.

“The move into 3PL is considered a natural progression for a haulage company like KN. Besides our prime movers, we also have over three million sq ft of open yard and 500,000 sq ft covered warehouse.

“About 50% to 60% of our 3PL customers last year were our current haulage customers,” he said.

NCB recorded a 12.1% drop in total revenue to RM831.4mil in its last financial year ended Dec 31.

However, its pre-tax profit was 2.3% higher at RM167.9mil.

NCB has also declared final and special dividend of 21 sen per share.

Northport recorded a pre-tax profit of RM148mil on revenue of RM611.9mil last year.

Meanwhile, KN posted a pre-tax profit of RM9.7mil and revenue of RM219.5mil for the year under review.

NCB Holdings Bhd’s direct subsidiary, Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, is expected to register an increased cargo volume of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent this year.

Northport Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Basheer Hassan said the company sees an increase in both the container and cargo business segments amid an improving economy.

“Northport registered a total volume of 2.858 million TEUs in 2009, a decrease of five per cent compared to 3.006 million previously,” Basheer told reporters after NCB Holdings” annual general meeting (AGM), in Petaling Jaya today.

He said the container mix at Northport stood at 50 per cent for both import and export containers.

Transshipment containers made up 38.6 per cent of the total volumed handled by Northport.

Under the conventional cargo business, Northport handled a combined volume of 6.53 million freight weight tonnes (FWT) last year.

Meanwhile, NCB Holdings Group”s chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said Northport continued to be the leading gateway for indigenous trade, handling 58.6 per cent of the country”s import and export volume passing through Port Klang.

He said the total volume of containers under all classes handled through Port Klang during 2009 was 7,309,779 TEUs, reflecting a decline of 8.3 per cent compared with 7,973,579 TEUs recorded in 2008.

On the planned construction of Wharf 8A, Ahmad Sarji said the group remained ready to re-activate the plan.

It would be to meet its customers’ demand for enhanced capacity to service their growth in business.

“Given the current growth, we are quite optimistic that we need to expand the capacity. This was held back in 2009 in the last quarter because of economic downturn.”

With the indication of growth now, it would be sustainable to invest, said Basheer.

He said Northport will call for tender in one or two weeks for building of the wharf.

The size of the wharf will be 300 meters in length and 17 meters in depth.

This will allow ships to berth at any one time there, he added. — Bernama

Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) is throwing the ball back into the court of international shipping lines who have slammed the terminal operator for not penalising shippers that overload their cargo containers on a vessel.

PPSB chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said it was based on the appeals made by shipping lines to allow overloaded vessels into the port that resulted in no enforcement made to date.

“It’s the members of the International Ship Owners’ Association of Malaysia (ISOA) themselves who have been appealing to us and now they are blaming us for not penalising the offending shippers,” he told Business Times.

Ahmad was responding to a Business Times report where international container shipping lines operating at Penang Port slammed the terminal operator for not penalising shippers who overload their cargo containers on a vessel, saying it could lead to an accident.

ISOA secretary Fong Keng Lun said requests for enforcement have been sent to PPSB as early as June last year, but so far the calls have gone unheeded.

Ahmad said PPSB will be calling a meeting of all its users soon and ask them to decide whether they want enforcement to take effect immediately.

“The ISOA members can decide if they want us to ignore their previous appeal and support the rule that any overweight containers detected by us be not allowed to be loaded onto the vessels,” he added.

Fong had claimed that ISOA had sent repeated requests to PPSB to impose the rule that any overweight containers detected by the terminal operator will not be allowed to be loaded onto the vessels.

He said apart from the risks to human lives and the transportation operators’ equipment, some of the overweight containers were subsequently detected at transshipment ports like Hong Kong and were held back until the shipping lines had repacked the overweight containers.

The maximum permissible weight of a 20-foot container is 24 tonnes, 30.48 tonnes for a 40-foot container and up to 32 tonnes for a new-generation 40-foot container.

By : Marina Emmanuel

PENANG Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) is carrying out a rebranding exercise which will see it enhancing its facilities and services to clients while positioning its entire port operations under a new image.

Its managing director, Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said the entire rebranding process will not only involve the services the port is offering but also the image, delivery and the work structure of the organisation and its employees.

He said the changes are in order for PPSB to play a bigger role in driving the region’s logistics industry, in line with the government’s aspirations to make Penang the logistics hub for the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER).

When met by Bernama recently, he said that PPSB so far has identified several image solutions that were suited for the company to adopt for its rebranding exercise and hoped to finalise them by the first quarter of next year.

A rebranding programme could then be carried out to give workers a fresh inspiration and encourage them to work harder and make Penang Port relevant to the region’s logistics industry.

“We also want to attract users in the northern region including Southern Thailand to use the Penang Port as a main hub for exporting halal products to the rest of the world,” Ahmad said.

He said PPSB was also working to attract bigger ships from the Middle East and India to use the Penang Port as their cargo delivery and loading centre in the future.

“To enable the bigger ships to call here, we need to deepen the Pulau Pinang Straits and this will need a huge amount of money,” he said.

Ahmad also said that people often had a wrong view of PPSB and thought of it as being only a provider of ferry services and used the services to measure the entire capability of the company.

“That is not accurate, as besides the ferry (services), we are also involved in cargo handling, landing of cruise ships and others. We recorded profit in all the other services except the ferry services,” he added. – Bernama

By: btimes.com.my