ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

PORT KLANG: Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Westports), operator of the country’s busiest port, is looking at the overseas market to expand its business beyond Malaysia via partnerships.

Its chief executive officer, Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, said Westports was looking at a few potential markets particularly South East Asian countries and India to expand its container business.

He said despite the slowing down of demand in Europe, US and China, the fast emerging markets such as India, Africa and Middle East countries were continuing their growth.

“We are always looking for opportunities beyond Malaysia and are often in talks with various parties but todate we do not have any concrete development on that yet,” he said.

He said talks were still at the early stages and the group was now getting to know its potential partners.

Westports’ core business is container operations and its major clients include the CMA CGM group, China Shipping and United Arab Shipping Corp.

Ruben Emir said Westports will spend about RM500 million in 2013 to improve its current facility and provide better services to its clients.

“We are currently constructing the 300-metre and 600-metre wharfs which are to be ready by January 2013 and early 2014 respectively.”

He added that the port hoped to see positive improvements in both performance and productivity, especially in container operations, once the wharfs are completed.

“Our current capacity is 8.5 million TEUs and we will be able to reach 10 million TEUs capacity with the completion of the two wharfs in 2014.”

The wharfs will come along with crane and corresponding yacht equipment.

“The improvement for the yacht equipment is that we are moving towards electric based equipment from fuel based equipment,” he added. Bernama

The CMA-CGM Group expects to grow its container volume in Port Klang between 12 per cent and 13 per cent again this year, if everything goes reasonably well.

“It’s very difficult to predict. We don’t want to be too optimistic and tempt fate, because there is still a lot of uncertainties in the European and US economy but we think with the good recovery last year we can continue,” CMA-CGM & ANL Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw told reporters during an appreciation lunch to mark CMA-CGM’s for breaching 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in Port Klang.

CMA-CGM registered between 12 and 13 per cent growth in container volume in Port Klang in 2010, due to good growth in transshipment as well as local cargo.

Last year the company contributed about 26 per cent to Port Klang’s overall throughput volume.

Local cargo makes up about 10 – 12 per cent of the cargo CMA-CGM handles while the remainder is from transfer of containers and transshipment.

Whitelaw said however that the fourth quarter of 2010 saw some softening in cargo movement, as China’s consumer demand eased off.

“The fourth quarter was definitely softening a little bit partly because business tailed off, and China was not the big consumer demand everyone was expecting. Fourth quarter was a little bit softer from the third quarter,” Whitelaw said.

CMA-CGM started out in Port Klang in 1998, handling some 20,000 TEUs.

Meanwhile Port Klang Authority chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said he is confident that the port would be able to at least maintain its world ranking of the previous year. Port Klang was ranked 13th in the world’s busiest container port in 2009.

“We improved by 21 per cent last year, we still don’t know the world ranking for 2010 but we expect to at least maintain it. I don’t think many ports in the world have seen such a large jump,” Lee said.

Port Klang, which comprises Westports and Northport, recorded a 21 per cent rise in container volume in 2010, to 8.9 million TEUs.

One of the world’s largest containership, the 13,300-TEU CMA CGM Christophe Colomb, made its maiden call at Westports on November 22.

The vessel represents the biggest to arrive at Port Klang to date.

Although it was an ad hoc call, Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd said its operations staff were fully prepared to meet the challenge, recording a gross crane productivity of 37 moves per hour.

“The arrival of Christophe Colomb proves the CMA CGM group’s confidence in the ability of Westports to handle mega-sized vessels. Our skillful workforce and state-of-the-art port facilities can handle the growing sizes of container vessels which are likely to make more calls at our port next year onwards,” Westports executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said in a statement yesterday.

“Christophe Colomb also proves CMA CGM’s ability to move forward in the current economic context.

“This new giant is a strategic asset for the group (CMA CGM), while volume and freight rates on the Asia to Europe market are recovering. This modern vessel enables CMA CGM to meet its growing customer demand on this key market while ensuring economics of scale,” Ruben added.

The 365.5-metre long, 51.2-metre wide eco-friendly vessel is fully equipped with the latest technology, designed to optimise hydrodynamics and maximise propulsion. Use of an electronically controlled engine meanwhile helps reduce oil consumption by 25 per cent, resulting in a 2 to 4 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, Christophe Colomb is equipped with a fast oil recovery system, which enables bunkers to be rapidly recovered at any time, hence significantly limiting the environmental consequences should there be an incident at sea.

The Christophe Colomb is part of the FAL 7, a European service operated jointly by CMA CGM and Maersk.

By: btimes.com.my

CMA CGM’s first dedicated On Dock Depot (ODD) in Asia officially opened recently at Westports in Port Klang.

The ODD facility, located at CT5, is aimed at providing good customer service to the French liner’s customers, especially in the local market which has grown tremendously this year.

Witnessing the milestone event were Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam, executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam and CMA CGM ANL Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw as well as representatives from the local CMA CGM office and Westports.

Speaking at the opening, Whitelaw said plans for the ODD facility were looked into for sometime as a means to support its growing domestic business.

He said the ODD would provide fast turnaround of empties, quick delivery and better quality boxes.

“The ODD facility would provide another strategic base for our customers at Westports to help meet the growing demand generated by ever increasing levels of trade. Besides providing cleaning and repairs of empties, we also provide free inspection,” he added.

He also pointed out that the ODD, which has access to the Free Zone and with a current capacity of 12,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), has the potential to become a regional hub.

CMA CGM, the world’s third largest shipping line, is Westports’ number one customer.

By: btimes.com.my

CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container shipping company, expects double-digit growth for its container volume at Westports next year despite the global economic slowdown.

The target is achievable with bigger ships coming into service, said CMA CGM Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw.

“We are projecting a double-digit growth for 2009,” he said on the sidelines of Symposium on Ports and Shipping New Developments in Port Klang on Wednesday.

The company, based in France, has registered 2.0 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) as on Tuesday, approaching the 2008 target of 2.1 million TEUs. Last year, it generated a volume of 1.7 million TEUs.

Among CMA CGM’s new bigger ships set to enter Westports are the 11,500-TEU vessels coming this week and the 13,500-TEU vessels in 18 months’ times.

According to Whitelaw, the company sees Malaysia as a big potential as the country has a balanced portfolio with commodities and manufacturing products as well as a steady balance of trade.

He said despite the current global economic turmoil, the company’s operations in China were not badly affected mainly because of its large office network in the country.

CMA CGM is also trying to maintain its freight rate at the right level although the market rate has dropped over the last few months, Whitelaw said. – Bernam

By : btimes.com.my

The terminal operator achieved a speed of 665 moves per hour in the first hour of operations and moved 4,427 TEUs within 10 hours

TERMINAL operator Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd said its operations team has set two new world records for productivity on November 17, despite heavy rain and wet conditions.

The first record was achieved with a speed of 665 moves per hour in the first hour of operations, breaking the previous record of 456 moves in June 2006.

In a statement issued last week, Westports said it was able to do this by using nine twin-lift cranes in the first hour of operations. These cranes are able to lift two containers simultaneously.

The second record entailed vessel productivity by moving 4,427 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) within 10 hours.

The operations were on French-based CMA CGM’s vessel called ORFEO that can carry a total of 9,700 TEUs and operates the French Asia Line 4 (FAL 4) service, the latest service in the FAL network linking Asia and Europe.

Seventeen quay crane operators who worked on two shifts, as the vessel arrived at 0400 hours and departed at 1330 hours, were the “centre-forwards” of the record high scoring team.

The 17 are now listed among the best quay crane operators in the world.

They are Badrul Hisham Tajuddin, Mazidin Hanif, Ramis Krishnasamy, Syed Hidir Syed Mohd Ali, Mohd Soni Soron, Khamaly Jasmin, Saravanan Kuppusamy, Mohd Romzi Hasan, Muniandy Perumal, Chandra Mohan Maninayagam, Bond Ganson, Ibrahim Samsudin, Mohd Shariff Bajuri, Hamidi Toha, Jamaly Synie, Khairul Nizam Awang and Sargunan Selvam.

With the latest achievements, Westports now stands among the top five ports in the world in terms of productivity.

“At Westports, investing in people is a highly regarded talent management framework that helps the port to improve performance and employee productivity through the effective management and development of people.

“Our operations staff are constantly required to acquire skills to be responsive to constant changes and constant quickening of the pace,” said Westports executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam.

He said the most important movement in the chain of ship to shore productivity lies in the speed of the quay cranes. The process of hoisting containers on and off the vessels is a skill, which has been honed into a craft.

Westports’ latest acquisition of new super post-Panamax quay cranes is part of on-going efforts to have the latest state-of-the-art resources to meet customers’ needs now and into the future, he added.

“Additionally, the port’s move to introduce several measures to maintain employees’ morale and productivity following the fuel price increase in June such as improved staff incentive scheme, higher allowances as well as salary increment and introduction of G-Mart store for cash-less shopping seems to be paying-off, judging by these two world records. It is undoubtedly our employees’ response to the company’s goodwill towards them,” Ruben said.

By : btimes.com.my