ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

Westports Malaysia, Port Klang’s leading terminal, and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) have jointly launched the KTX3 Service, which provides fast connectivity to Japan for Malaysian shippers.

The KTX3 service on the Intra-Asia trade now connects Westports with direct weekly services to the Japanese ports of Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe.

Also in the loop is Keelung in Taiwan, Shekou and Hong Kong.

“With direct connectivity to Japan, we are now providing more options for our customers to send or receive cargoes to and from Japan.

“Westports is not only a long haul port. We have now closed the gap on Intra-Asia coverage as we have increased our presence in the Intra-Asia routes,” said Westports Executive Director Ruben Emir Gnanalingamin in a statement on Sunday.

Thanking OOCL and Westports customers for their vote of confidence and continued support, he said Westports remained committed to delivering high productivity and service standards demanded by shipping lines and customers.

OOCL’s Regional Managing Director Captain S.C.Chan said the service was enhanced recently to meet increasing customer demand in the region.

Since its introduction, Chan said the KTX service had proven to be highly dependable and popular among customers in the Intra-Asia market.

“We are excited of this extension of the KTX3 service to Westports as we believe the port has proven to be a highly productive port in the world, trusted with skilled workforce, reliability, security as well as a friendly port with personalised services,” he added.

— BERNAMA

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