ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

WESTPORTS Malaysia Sdn Bhd, operator of the country’s busiest port, expects to see growth in its business for next year despite the gloomy global economy.

Its chief executive Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said despite the global economic crisis and news of the European economy in recession, consumption worldwide is increasing.

He said Westports’ cargo volume is growing due to rising demand in India and other African and West Asian countries.

“Although the economic outlook is not so good for most of the world, consumption is increasing and cargoes need to be moved from the countries manufacturing them to countries that consume them. So there is a lot of growth,” Ruben Emir said.

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

He said Westports is confident of handling seven million TEUs of container cargo this year.

“I think we have hit six million TEUs and so, with one million TEUS more before year-end, I think we should be almost touching it,” Ruben Emir said.
Last year, Westports handled 6.4 million TEUs.

However, he said Westports hopes to achieve eight to 10 million TEUs once its additional 300m berths and 600m berths are completed by 2014. 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

Port confident of achieving 8% growth this year

GELANG PATAH: Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) expects a healthy and sustainable growth this year despite operating in a challenging business environment.

The positive outlook is based on the port’s outstanding performance in the first half of 2010 when it registered 13% growth compared with the same period the previous year.

In May this year, its monthly throughput volume stood at 572,444 20-ft equivalent units (TEUs), the highest ever handled in a single month since it started operations 10 years ago.

Prior to that, the highest number of containers handled in a single month was 557,693 TEUs in August 2009.

PTP’s monthly throughput volume in May stood at 572,444 TEUs, the highest ever handled in a single month since it started operations 10 years ago.

 “We managed to increase the number of containers handled and achieved the highest growth among the world’s top 20 container ports in 2009,” an official from PTP told StarBiz.

He said the achievement was commendable despite last year’s sluggish economy, which saw a drastic downturn in the containerised traffic sector worldwide.

Industry reports have listed only four of the world’s top 20 container ports that recorded growth in 2009, and all of them are in the region.

The four ports were PTP, which recorded 2.4% growth, and three Chinese ports – Qingdao (2.4%), Tianjin (2.3%) and Guangzhou (1.7%). Other heavyweights such as Singapore’s PSA experienced a drop of 13.5%, Hong Kong down by 14.3% and Shanghai by 10.7%.

The International Monetary Fund said in a report recently that the global economy was recovering better than expected but at varying speeds.

While most of the emerging and developing countries are experiencing steady growth, the growth in developed countries is not that impressive.

The United States and European economies are beginning to see a dip and the current downtrend in global container traffic would continue until the year-end.

“But we are confident that PTP will record 6.5 million TEUs this year, representing 8% growth from six million TEUs handled in 2009,” the official said.

He added that PTP would maintain its efficient services and provide top-notch services at competitive cost to clients.

Crane moves at the port now averaged 34 to 35 per hour, which is way higher than the industry average of 28 moves per hour.

He said PTP handled close to 80 vessel calls a week and with the current berths and 44 quay cranes, the port could handle up to nine million TEUs.

By: ZAZALI MUSA

Port operator will expand terminal if global economy keeps improving

PETALING JAYA: Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd will commence its RM600mil terminal expansion next year if the global economy keeps improving and starts contributing to the growth of its container volume.

Executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the project to build container terminal six was to have started last year but was postponed as the port had not reached its internal trigger point that should prompt the expansion for extra capacity.

“Our capacity now is about seven million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and we expect to handle only 4.3 million to 4.4 million TEUs this year.

“All the tender specifications for the project are ready as they are quite similar to our previous terminal expansion projects,” he told StarBiz.

Ruben said Westports had recently revised upward its targeted volume for this year from four million TEUs due to the month-on-month steady growth from the first quarter.

“The earlier target for 2009 was lower due to the sharp slump trend started in the last quarter last year.

“But the trend has been improving in the second quarter with average monthly volume of 360,000 TEUs, and even better in the current quarter with 400,000 TEUs,” he said.

Year-on-year, he added, the current third quarter still fared behind as Westports did very well in its third quarter last year with a record-breaking 475,000 TEUs in August.

Westports handled about 4.97 million TEUs in 2008.

On the global economic crisis, Ruben said Westports managed to identify and practised sustainable cost-cutting measures during the not “too busy” period to be more resilient in the future.

“We have not been able to really study our cost-saving measures previously as we were too busy with the rapid growth. But now, once we have identified the areas where we can cut costs, we will sustain the practice.

“We also managed to focus on intensive staff training in the lull period as Westports did not retrench any workers although its volume was down earlier in the year,” he said, noting that the port employed about 3,250 workers.

He said the training and cost-cutting measures made the port even more prepared to seize opportunities when the economy picked up.

On its mission to make Port Klang a bigger hub in the region, Ruben said Westports, which recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, would continue to focus on enhancing its productivity and services.

“We will also be looking at improving bunkering and feedering activities at the port,” he said.

Feedering is a process where smaller ports feed containers to hub ports as the latter have higher connectivity due to more calls made by shipping lines, while bunkering is fuel supply services to vessels.

Westports’ feedering activities come from ports in South-East Asia and India.

He said it was important for Port Klang to strive to be a bigger hub as it would not only benefit the port but also local importers and exporters.

“There is a huge difference between the freight rates of a non-hub port and a hub port. The freight rates at the hub port is cheaper due to the competitiveness of the many shipping lines, volume and the availability of empty containers,” he said.

Ruben said Westports had come a long way from its inception in 1994 and would continue focusing on sustainable development that included the Pulau Indah community and the environment.

“Apart from making the island more industrious with job opportunities and supporting services to the port, we now want to make it more friendly with communal facilities.

“For the environment, Westports – which is already known for its ‘garden port’ concept – will try to plant more trees,” he said.

By : Sharidan M. Ali