ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

ASEAN Strategic Transport Plan (ASTP) 2011 -2015, aka Brunei Action Plan (BAP) 2011-2015 is a successor to ASEAN Transport Action Plan (ATAP) which expired in 2010. “Brunei Action Plan” (BAP) was presented and adopted during the 16th ASEAN Transport Meeting in November 2010. It was discuss at the 21st Maritime Transport Working Group (MTWG), March 2011 at Kota Kinabalu for the first time.

BAP is one of the initiatives to provide reference in guiding ASEAN Transport Cooperation and integration in the next five years. It covers three main sectors land, air, and maritime transport, and transport facilitation.

BAP was formulated, prepared and submitted by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Study Team.

In the 21st ASEAN Maritime Transport Working Group Meeting (AMTWG), Malaysia was appointed as the lead country for MTG-2 MTA7 No.1 “FORMULATE TRAINING PROGRAM TO ENHANCE CAPABILITY OF PORT PERSONNEL BY 2012”.

With this appointment Malaysia has to come up with the best standardized training program that can be used by ASEAN ports as a guideline to their training program to enhance capability of port personnel.

In order to develop the program that suit the needs of, and compatible with the culture in ports of ASEAN, Malaysia, is seeking the cooperation of ASEAN member states, through the channel of the ASEAN Ports Association (APA) Malaysia, to provide feedback and share any useful information pertaining the existing reputable training program(s) for port personnel that the port has, or any information or documentation that the port feels necessary and significant to share among ASEAN member states.

Any information shared thought this survey page will be kept and used as reference by Malaysia for the purpose of project mentioned above. The developed training program then will be presented in the future ASEAN MTWG meeting; open for comments and will be adopted as official reference for ASEAN member states.

Thank you for your time in completing this survey. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and support.

Ten new palm oil storage tanks to be constructed

KUCHING: Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd (BPHB) is embarking on a RM600mil expansion programme to boost Bintulu Port’s cargo handling capacity.

Chief executive officer Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad said the expansion of the container terminal, which started seven months ago, would raise annual handling capacity by 250,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to 650,000 TEUs when completed next year.

Also under implementation is the expansion of the multi-purpose terminal for dry bulk cargo.

Mior Ahmad said the construction of the proposed RM14.9mil container freight station was awarded last week.

To be awarded soon was a contract to build 10 new storage tanks for palm oil, he said. The proposed RM25mil project will boost storage capacity by 26,000 tonnes from 76,000 tonnes.

Also in the pipeline are the proposed development of 19.1ha for port operation buildings and yard and an additional berth for the edible oil terminal.

Other planned projects included the conversion of the existing 200m general cargo wharf into a containerised cargo wharf and the purchase of more cargo handling equipment, Mior Ahmad said after the company AGM yesterday.

“All these projects are expected to be completed by 2011,” he said.

Chairman Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin said in a statement that the company would expand the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities if the need arose.

“Currently, the LNG segment contributes 78% to the group’s total operating revenue,” he said, adding that in the next five years, LNG cargo would account for 60% of operating revenue.

Mior Ahmad said LNG handling contributed about RM330mil to revenue last year while containerised cargo and palm oil accounted for some RM33mil and RM22mil respectively.

BPHB recorded group operating revenue of RM448.8mil for the year ended Dec 31, up by RM31.6mil from 2007. Group pre-tax profit jumped to RM205.9mil against RM189.2mil in 2007.

Statistics have shown that container volume grew by over 15% to 290,167 TEUs last year from 251,800 TEUs in 2007.

Mior Ahmad said the economic slowdown had adversely affected Bintulu Port’s container cargo traffic, which dropped by about 30% for the first three months of this year against the same period last year.

However, he said there were positive signs that the situation had steadily improved.

“For dry bulk fertiliser there was zero import in the first quarter this year. But there are two shipments coming in this month,’’ he added.

LNG export volume, however, had sustained, he said.

He said 15 shipping lines (container cargo) were now calling at Bintulu Port.

By JACK WONG