ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

PORT KLANG: Container volume moving through Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd rose by 15 per cent or 6.4 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year, compared with 5.6 million TEUs in 2010.

In a statement, Westports said the better-than-expected container volume throughput comes from both transhipment and indigenous boxes, registering positive increases of 22 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

The robust performance in 2011 has made Westports one of the fastest growing ports in the world.

“The port has been well-known to the shipping industry as one of world’s best productivity terminal operator in container handling.

“Barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect to see a strong growth trend in volumes moving forward albeit uncertainty in eurozone, we have set a target of seven million TEUs in 2012,” Westports chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said.

Ruben said expansion plan to further improve the port’s capacity is underway with the current development of expanding the existing 3,700m container terminal to 4,600m, making Westports Malaysia a 10-million-TEU handling capacity port within the next two years.

The new terminal is designed to handle 18,000-TEU capacity vessel, which will be the largest container vessel in the world come 2013.

He said the company’s investment in expansion works is to accommodate the needs of its customers as well as meeting the increasing demands of domestic and international trade.

by: Business Times

Terminal operator Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) will be roping in 30 additional skilled personnel to handle vital port machinery next year, as part of efforts to boost productivity.

The port now handles an average crane productivity of 25 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) moves per hour compared with 35 TEU moves per hour by more productive ports.

The new recruitments will handle the port’s seven new post-panamax cranes and work the extended 1.5km berth, which is due to be completed by the middle of next year, said PPSB human resources general manager Tadzaruddin Abd Manaf.

“There will also be training involved as the cranes are specialised equipment that are crucial in speeding up our operations in container services.

“We plan to get this recruitment process started once we have determined our 2011 budget which will cater for our expansion plans at the end of the year,” he told reporters after officiating at the port’s 14th blood donation campaign, which saw the participation of 140 employees, at its office in George Town yesterday. PPSB employs 1,760 people.

The port is currently undergoing expansion plans, which include the extension of the port’s existing 900m wharf to another 600m, and the deepening of the North Channel among others, to increase its productivity as an international port.

Tadzaruddin said the port has spent about RM1.6 billion over the past five years on infrastructure development, mainly for its North Butterworth Container Terminal.

“With improvements to our infrastructure and online system, we expect business to pick up. Last month alone, we handled 96,000 TEUs.

“For this month, things are looking well. Hopefully, by the end of the year we will be able to reach our one million-TEU target, make RM300 million in revenue and move forward in our efforts to join the big leagues like Port Klang that handles four million TEUs a year,” he said.

PPSB handled a total of 958,476 TEUs last year, compared with 929,639 TEUs in 2008.

The port was ranked 64th in the world this year, 36 places above its last year’s position at 100.

Tadzaruddin said PPSB will work towards improving its international ranking, or at least maintain its performance.

“We are on the right track in serving our customers locally and internationally. We are expecting business to increase in 2011,” he said.

By: Looi Sue-Chern

Terminal operator Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) plans to boost productivity this year, newly appointed chairman Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said yesterday.

Although shipping companies and ports were hit hard by the global economic downturn, Penang Port’s volume rose 3 per cent in 2009.

In a statement issued yesterday, Dr Hilmi said in 2009, Penang Port handled a total of 958,476 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) compared with 929,639 TEUs in 2008.

“Our main priorities now are to continually improve our productivity, provide a range of diverse supporting port services and monitor our expansion plans in great detail”, he said.

PPSB has embarked on several key projects.

“The first phase in the expansion of dedicated container terminal will include a new 600m wharf extension to the existing 900 metre wharf, with new decking area for export container. A third access bridge is under construction. Simultaneously, for the second part of this project, a new back decking area will be built parallel to the existing 900m wharf.”

Construction for this project is 65 per cent done and four months ahead of schedule.

To complement the expansion, Penang Port has taken delivery of seven Post-Panamax cranes, each costing RM25 million.

While four of the cranes were delivered in November 2009, Dr Hilmi said the remainder arrived last month.

“A Post-Panamax crane,” Dr Hilmi noted, “can reach 16 rows of containers on board the ship. The new cranes with its twin-lift capabilities will speed up handling operations as it can pick up two containers at a time.

“With these new projects, productivity at the port will be enhanced with a new target of crane productivity at more than 25 TEUs moves per hour.”

By: Btimes.com.my

By forming a new subsidiary to manage its ferry business, Penang Port can make strategic moves at turning around the unit, says its managing director

The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) has given the much-awaited nod to terminal operator Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) to separate its loss-making ferry operations from its core port business, and make it a subsidiary of the company.

The move by the EPU, a body established under the Prime Minister’s Department, is part of a major restructuring plan aimed at facilitating the port operating unit’s listing on Bursa Malaysia.

PPSB managing director Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said the separation of the two businesses, which is likely to take place this year, will create distinct identities for PPSB’s ferry and port operations.

“This restructuring exercise is expected to be endorsed by PPSB’s board when it meets on October 9 and we are looking at positioning the ferry operations as a public transport provider like Rapid Penang and the light rail transit service,” he told a press conference in Penang yesterday.

Present was PPSB’s newly-appointed chief operating officer Azlan Hamid.

Ahmad said by forming a new subsidiary to manage its ferry business, PPSB can make strategic moves at turning around this unit.

“One way to fill our fleet of eight ferries up and ensure that they run optimally is to team up with Rapid Penang.

“We plan to load their buses on our ferries – which currently operate at only 25 per cent capacity – and allow passengers to travel on a single ticket,” he added.

He said discussions on the fare structure for this proposed merging of services between PPSB and Rapid Penang will be held with Rapid Penang’s chief executive officer Azhar Ahmad soon.

The ferry service, which links Penang island to the mainland, has been a stumbling block to the port opera-ting company’s initial public offering.

Last year, ferry losses stood at RM24.6 million, a 71 per cent increase over RM14.4 million in 2007.

“The massive losses last year were due to fuel cost. We are looking at losses of RM14 million this year,” Ahmad said.

In July this year, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadziah was reported as saying that state infrastructure company Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd had been given the mandate by the Finance Ministry to carry out a study on the viability of taking over the ferry service from PPSB.

The public ferry service was absorbed into PPSB as part of its corporatisation deal with the Penang Port Commission in January 1994. Some 6,500 passengers and 3,000 vehicles use the service daily. Passengers pay RM1.20 each, while the fare for a car is RM7.70.

Meanwhile, Ahmad said Penang Port’s container throughput for 2009 is expected to match the 2008 volume of 929,639 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units).

By Marina Emmanuel

Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) is throwing the ball back into the court of international shipping lines who have slammed the terminal operator for not penalising shippers that overload their cargo containers on a vessel.

PPSB chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said it was based on the appeals made by shipping lines to allow overloaded vessels into the port that resulted in no enforcement made to date.

“It’s the members of the International Ship Owners’ Association of Malaysia (ISOA) themselves who have been appealing to us and now they are blaming us for not penalising the offending shippers,” he told Business Times.

Ahmad was responding to a Business Times report where international container shipping lines operating at Penang Port slammed the terminal operator for not penalising shippers who overload their cargo containers on a vessel, saying it could lead to an accident.

ISOA secretary Fong Keng Lun said requests for enforcement have been sent to PPSB as early as June last year, but so far the calls have gone unheeded.

Ahmad said PPSB will be calling a meeting of all its users soon and ask them to decide whether they want enforcement to take effect immediately.

“The ISOA members can decide if they want us to ignore their previous appeal and support the rule that any overweight containers detected by us be not allowed to be loaded onto the vessels,” he added.

Fong had claimed that ISOA had sent repeated requests to PPSB to impose the rule that any overweight containers detected by the terminal operator will not be allowed to be loaded onto the vessels.

He said apart from the risks to human lives and the transportation operators’ equipment, some of the overweight containers were subsequently detected at transshipment ports like Hong Kong and were held back until the shipping lines had repacked the overweight containers.

The maximum permissible weight of a 20-foot container is 24 tonnes, 30.48 tonnes for a 40-foot container and up to 32 tonnes for a new-generation 40-foot container.

By : Marina Emmanuel

International container shipping lines operating at Penang Port have slammed the terminal operator for not penalising shippers who overload their cargo containers on a vessel, saying it could lead to an accident.

International Ship Owners’ Association of Malaysia (ISOA) secretary Fong Keng Lun said requests for enforcement have been sent to Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) as early as June last year, but so far the calls have gone unheeded.

In a letter dated June 30 2008, obtained by Business Times, the association wrote that some of its members had reported that overweight containers from southern Thailand regularly slipped through the checks at Penang Port and Padang Besar Terminal and were loaded onto the vessels.

“Some of these (overweight) containers were subsequently detected at transshipment ports like Hong Kong and were held back until the shipping lines had repacked the overweight containers.

“Shipping lines have to incur repacking costs and very often, due to time constraint, the on-carrying vessels have to sail off without the containers,” ISOA said, also voicing concerns over the risks to human lives and the transportation operators’ equipment.

In the same letter, the association had requested for PPSB’s support to impose the rule that any overweight containers detected by the terminal operator will not be allowed to be loaded onto the vessels.

“A circular was also sent to all ISOA members on July 2 2008, urging them not to accept overweight containers,” Fong told Business Times.

The maximum permissible weight of a 20-foot container is 24 tonnes, 30.48 tonnes for a 40-foot container and up to 32 tonnes for a new generation 40-foot container.

Fong said more recently the association made repeated pleas on May 6 and June 4, which have been ignored by PPSB.

“The letters were issued following news that the problem of overweight containers from South Thailand via Penang had resurfaced. The problem occurred with containers delivered by barge/feeder as well as by rail from Padang Besar,” he added.

Fong said ISOA’s latest calls for immediate action to stem the overweight container issue at Penang Port was also due to a March 2009 incident at Kantang Port, Thailand, which saw two barges heading for Penang Port sank due to overweight cargo.

“Today, both the Kantang terminal and barge operator are not implementing any enforcement of regulations pertaining to overweight cargo. PPSB likewise is also not implementing any check on this issue,” he said.

Fong added that the association was baffled why no action had so far been taken by PPSB on the matter, when Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd, which manages the Padang Besar Terminal, has responded favourably to similar calls made recently.

“Is PPSB waiting for another accident to happen before it takes any action?” said Fong.

In a letter signed by Multimodal Freight general manager Azman Ahmad Shaharbi, dated May 26 2009, Azman said the company will reject containers found to be overweight and agreed not to load them onto Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd’s (KTMB) trains for export via Penang Port. Multimodal Freight is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KTMB.

It also pledged to install a weighing bridge for weighing all incoming containers, which is expected to be operational by the end of this year.

By : Kang Siew Li

Terminal operator Northport (Malaysia) Bhd has embarked on a cost-cutting exercise that will see all recruitment frozen and advertising spending slashed, in anticipation of worsening economic conditions.

“Many people are predicting that things are going to get worse next year, and so we are preparing ourselves to ride through this crisis. An obvious way is to cut costs,” said its managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader.

He was speaking to reporters after delivering a talk titled “Expanding the Operating Capacity of Northport through Implementing Strategic Initiatives” at the Selangor Freight Forwarders and Logistics Association in Port Klang last week.

Basheer said the port has put a freeze on staff recruitment and postponed or cut spending in areas such as advertising.

“However, we have no plans to retrench staff. In fact, it did not cross our mind,” he said, adding that the port had recruited about 30 people in the last three months.

Basheer believes that Northport’s restructuring and merger exercise between Klang Container Terminal Bhd and Kelang Port Management Bhd in 2000 will put the port in good stead to withstand the current downturn.

This includes its strategy over the past few years of focusing on revenue and profit growth instead of volume growth; the optimal utilisation of its assets such as land, labour and capital; and moving to higher-margin businesses comprising container, conventional cargo, logistics and automotive.

“Because of our prudent policy where we have kept our gearing to almost zero, we are well positioned to withstand the current crisis,” he said.

Northport is also keeping its RM500 million expansion plans on track, which include the development of a 350m container berth, bringing the container quayline at the port to a total of 3.4km.

Basheer also said the port remained on track to meet its forecast of three million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) in container throughput this year.

However, he warned that the port has started seeing a drop in cargo volume in the fourth quarter of this year.

“Northport’s focus is import and export trade, particularly intra-Asian trade. As such, this recession is a concern to us because if Malaysian trade is affected, Northport will also be affected.

“We are starting to feel the effects of the global slowdown in the current quarter. But the drop (in cargo volume) is nothing to be seriously alarmed about yet,” said Basheer.

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