ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

3,000 ground slots will be ready in container terminal by then

GEORGE TOWN: Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) needs one month to solve the congestion problems at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) as the new decking area with 3,000 ground slots will only be ready by then.

Penang Port Commission (PPC) chairman Tan Cheng Liang told a press conference that all the port users had agreed to wait till next month for PPSB to solve the congestion problems.

Also present were PPC general manager Noor Ariff Yusoff, PPSB chief operating officer Azlan Hamid, and the Association of Malaysian Hauliers northern region chairman R. Amaippan.

“PPSB has also identified certain key problems to be resolved to hasten the flow of cargo delivery. These entail the opening of all the four entrance gates during meal hours and improving the scanning of container cargo to speed up cargo delivery,” Tan said.

Tan spoke following a meeting with port users including hauliers, exporters, forwarders, and representatives from the transport and international trade and industry ministries.

“When the additional 3,000 ground slots at the new decking area are ready next month, PPSB will open the window frame for cargo delivery back to five days,” she said.

Due to congestion at the NBCT container yard, the window for cargo delivery was shortened to 1½ days three months ago.

Last month, StarBiz reported that 20 container haulage companies in the northern region were losing about RM18mil a month in “opportunity cost” because of the shorter window frame to deliver container cargo for export.

On Saturday, Amaippan advised customers to use Port Klang, and subsequently Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had also called for outside expertise to be brought in to assist PPC and PPPSB.

Tan said Lim should quickly give out land titles to PPC for four plots of land so that they could be used to ease congestion at the NBCT and for use by the Penang International Cruise Terminal (PICT).

“We have submitted applications for the land titles.

“Two plots of land are for use at the NBCT while the other two are for use by PICT,” Tan said.

“One plot of about 26ha has been designated for use as a container yard at the NBCT. This container yard has 4,200 ground slots to accommodate cargo.

“Another plot is for a bridge at the NBCT to facilitate cargo movement from the container yard to the decking area,” she said.

By DAVID TAN

MIRI: The Miri Port Authority was awarded the 2009 5S Special Award at the 12th National 5S Convention organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation on Nov 8.The award ceremony held in Grand Dorseu Hotel, Subang Jaya in Selangor attracted about 300 representatives from 113 organisations comprising 53 companies and 60 government agencies and statutory bodies.

Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan officiated at the ceremony.

This was Miri Port’s first success in gaining the prestigious ‘5S Special Award’ under the statutory bodies category.

Commenting on the honour, Shebli Hairani, general manager of Miri Port said: “It is Miri Port’s commitment, consistent determination, and willingness to go beyond the routine that has brought us this recognition. I am truly glad and honoured to lead the port’s high performance team.”

Through various state, national and international awards, Miri Port Authority enjoys the reputation of being one of the best managed organisations with its high standard, service and delivery reliability, responsiveness and compliance with stringent international standards, he said.

Based on the Japanese ‘Kaizen’ culture, the 5S concept is embedded in work processes supporting its integrated management system such as MS 1S09001:2008 and BS OHSAS 18001:2007 providing direct significant impact to improving quality, productivity, efficiency in cargo delivery, safety, cost savings and storage optimisation.

The outcome of 5S has brought positive impact on both its internal customers and external customers as indicated by significant increase in its customers’ satisfaction index each year.

In addition, with savings from 5S zero wastage and lean thinking culture, Miri Port is extending its 5S practices to impact the environment and the fight against global warming.

It is supporting the National Greening Policy by embarking on greening projects and 4Rs (rebuy, recycle, reuse, and reduce) programmes in collaboration with other key agencies such as Miri City Council and Agriculture Department.

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