ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

Hamburg SUd, the 12th largest container carrier in the world, is the latest shipping line making Westports its home at Port Klang. Its vessel “Cap San Marco” (9,600 TEU), one of 12 units between 8,500 and 9,600 TEU deployed in the South America Service (ASIA 2), called at Westports Malaysia for the first time on 20th July

Hamburg SUd, the 12th largest container carrier in the world, is the latest shipping line to make Westports Malaysia in Port Klang its home.

Its vessel “Cap San Marco”, with capacity of 9,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and one of 12 units between 8,500 TEUs and 9,600 TEUs deployed in the South America Service (ASIA 2), called at Westports for the first time on Saturday.

The ASIA 2 service will see Westports further expanding its services coverage between South America and the Far East, improving the delivery time and connectivity for cargo shipped via the port.

Officiating the maiden call event at Westports Malaysia was Joint General Manager of Hamburg SUd for Region Asia Pacific Region, Stefan Kirschner.

“We are optimistic about the continued growth of Asia particularly Southeast Asia. The ASIA 2 service calling at Westports Malaysia will enable us to provide our customers with the best possible transit time to the key markets in South America and the Far East,” Kirschner said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Westports Malaysia Chief Executive Officer, Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the maiden call of Cap San Marco was another historical moment for Westports as this marked the beginning of its long-term partnership with Hamburg SUd.

“We are determined to provide Hamburg SUd with our continuous support and work hand-in-hand with them to expand their presence here,” he said.

In line with the terminal expansion of Westports and its volume growth, the government has given its commitment in deepening the South Channel and widening the current access roads in order to ensure that the port can continue to enhance its services to the shipping community and port users.

Westports is on an expansion mode in anticipation of the volume growth and progress on its Container Terminal 7 (CT7), measuring 600 metre in quay length.

Upon completion, it will increase Westports’ overall handling capacity from 9.5 million TEUs to 11 million TEUs.

This new berth is specifically designed and capable of handling the 18,000-TEU vessels which are currently the world’s largest container vessels in the order book. BERNAMA

Port Klang will have the capacity to handle almost 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers by 2016 as both Northport Malaysia Bhd and Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd are undergoing expansion plans.

Port Klang Authority Chairman Datuk Dr Teh Kim Poo said the authority was also in the midst of obtaining relevant approval to deepen the existing channels to 18 meters.

“This will make Port Klang competitive and a preferred choice to our customers,” he said at a logistics forum and exhibition here Monday.

Earlier, he said Northport would be able to handle 5.6 million TEUs this year after the conversion of Wharf 8A.

Northport was also in the process of expanding its break bulk and dry bulk handling facilities towards the North of Wharf 25.

Meanwhile, Wesport can handle 14 million TEUs after container terminal (CT) six is completed this year.

“Today, Port Klang handles almost 50 per cent of Malaysia’s sea-borne container trade,” Teh said, adding that, ports in the country handled about 20 million TEUs last year.

Port Klang has trade connections with over 120 countries worldwide and dealings with more than 500 ports throughout the globe, Teh added. BERNAMA

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

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

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

Malaysia’s leading port, Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd, posted a healthy 27 per cent surge in its container volume for the first quarter of this year compared with the corresponding period of last year

Improvements were seen in both performance and productivity, especially in container operations, Westports said in a statement.

Westports container throughput was 1.244 million TEUs compared with 981,000 TEUs in the first quarter of 2009.

Local volume increased by 24 per cent while transshipment was up by 22 per cent.

“If we compare our first quarter figures with that of 2008, which had a stronger performance compared with the slower and weaker 2009, we have actually grown by 7 per cent and this puts us on a stronger platform to achieve 5.2 million TEUs for 2010,” said Westports executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam in the statement.

Westports recorded a container volume of 1.166 million TEUs in the first quarter of 2008.

“Looking forward, the outlook for 2010 will be generally better than in 2009. There has been an uptrend in Westports’ throughput in past months and that could well be extended into the rest of the year,” Ruben said.

Most encouraging was the growth of local boxes, which saw Westports market share in Port Klang rising to 44 per cent while that for transshipment growth was retained at 71 per cent.

Overall, Westports commanded a market share of 61 per cent in Port Klang.

A significant development in Q1 was the new world benchmark for productivity recently.

“Westports’ operations team yet again showed its dexterity and skills in container handling when it managed to hit crane productivity of 734 moves in a single hour of operations with nine-crane deployment, erasing the earlier mark of 665 mph done on a CMA vessel in 2008,” the statement said.

This feat was performed on March 9 while working on CSCL Pusan, a 9,600-TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) vessel belonging to China Shipping.

A total of 5,244 moves were achieved on this vessel, which sails on the AEX 7 service (eastbound).

The productivity achieved over such a large volume of moves across the vessel continues to boost the port’s status as the World’s Best 5 for Productivity and a leading mega transshipment hub in the region.

On port expansion works, Ruben said: “We will build a new 300m wharf when we hit 450,000 TEUs consecutively for three months.

“This would be followed by the acquisition of additional equipment and manpower. Our current capacity is 7.2 million TEUs.” – Bernama

NCB Holdings Bhd’s direct subsidiary, Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, is expected to register an increased cargo volume of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent this year.

Northport Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Basheer Hassan said the company sees an increase in both the container and cargo business segments amid an improving economy.

“Northport registered a total volume of 2.858 million TEUs in 2009, a decrease of five per cent compared to 3.006 million previously,” Basheer told reporters after NCB Holdings” annual general meeting (AGM), in Petaling Jaya today.

He said the container mix at Northport stood at 50 per cent for both import and export containers.

Transshipment containers made up 38.6 per cent of the total volumed handled by Northport.

Under the conventional cargo business, Northport handled a combined volume of 6.53 million freight weight tonnes (FWT) last year.

Meanwhile, NCB Holdings Group”s chairman, Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid said Northport continued to be the leading gateway for indigenous trade, handling 58.6 per cent of the country”s import and export volume passing through Port Klang.

He said the total volume of containers under all classes handled through Port Klang during 2009 was 7,309,779 TEUs, reflecting a decline of 8.3 per cent compared with 7,973,579 TEUs recorded in 2008.

On the planned construction of Wharf 8A, Ahmad Sarji said the group remained ready to re-activate the plan.

It would be to meet its customers’ demand for enhanced capacity to service their growth in business.

“Given the current growth, we are quite optimistic that we need to expand the capacity. This was held back in 2009 in the last quarter because of economic downturn.”

With the indication of growth now, it would be sustainable to invest, said Basheer.

He said Northport will call for tender in one or two weeks for building of the wharf.

The size of the wharf will be 300 meters in length and 17 meters in depth.

This will allow ships to berth at any one time there, he added. — Bernama

Plan for expansion of the newly completed Sepanggar Container Port Terminal (SPTC) is being foreseen.

Infrastructure Development Minister, Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan yesterday said Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd (SPSB), the government-linked company managing the port, was already mulling on expansion plan to further improve the port’s capacity.

The port, sitting on a 22 hectare land started operation June 9, 2007, has a capacity of 500,000 TEUs but last year it handled only about 200,000 TEUs, as revealed by its Chief Operating Officer, Mohd Sahid Nawab Khan.

However, according to Pairin, since commencing operation it has recorded a commendable increase in terms of operational performance and thus an expansion plan was something to look forward to.

He said the move to privatize the ports in Sabah has resulted in a more efficient management where a steady increase in operational performance has been noticeable.

“Operation wise, the privatization is showing a desirable result as the performance of our port continues to improve. We are heading towards the right direction,” he told reporters here yesterday during a visit to SPTC yesterday.

He said the scale of the expansion would depend on future needs and it would involve increasing the size of the container yard and docking areas.

Pairin who was in his first work visit to the port since taking over the Ministry of Infrastructure Development in May, however regretted that high percentage of empty containers going out from the port has continued.

He said this was due to Sabah still not producing sufficient manufactured product for export.

In the mean time, SPSB Chairman Datuk Karim Bujang explained that Sabah currently exports mainly crude palm oil which does not require the usage of containers.

Sahid added that 70 per cent of the total containers handled that entered through the port last year returned empty and the figure has increased slightly this year.

Other ports around the globe, he noted, were showing similar trend due to global economic slowdown.

Most of the cargos it handles are from Peninsular Malaysia with a small percentage of transit cargos.

By :  Sabah Times

BUTTERWORTH: (NBCT) last month handled 92,439 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which is the highest volume achieved in a single month in its 35-year history, said Penang Port Sdn Bhd general manager Obaid Mansor.

“The average volume of cargo handled in a month is between 77,000 and 87,000 TEUs.

“In August last year, NBCT handled 85,505 TEUs and in August 2007, it was 78,624 TEUs,” Obaid told StarBiz, adding that it handled 87,879 TEUs in July.

He said NBCT was now optimistic the total volume of cargo handled this year would not decline by 5.5% as forecast in July.

“Cargo-handling activities in the fourth quarter should remain stable and NBCT should handle as much cargo this year as it did in 2008, which was 929,000 TEUs.

“We expect a lot of cargo such as furniture products and consumer electrical goods such as televisions, washing machines and refrigerators to arrive at NBCT in the fourth quarter, as wholesalers in the north would be stocking up to prepare for the festive season,” he said.

Obaid said the increased cargo-handling activities in August was due to a number of factors.

These include the greater volume of rubber-based cargo from southern Thailand exported via NBCT to other parts of Asia, the higher imports of steel scrap by steel mills in the north, and a bigger volume of empty containers coming from the Middle East and India.

“Empty containers comprised about 25% of the volume handled. They generate revenue as NBCT levies handling charges on their owners,” he said.

Export of rubber-based cargo and import of steel scrap were key indicators that the economy in the region was picking up, Obaid said.

“It shows that the effects of the stimulus packages are already kicking in. The import of steel scrap is an indicator that development projects in the north are resuming.”

Obaid said NBCT expected to handle over 80,000 TEUs of cargo this month.

He said the slight drop was expected as the bulk of restocking activities had taken place in August.

“The new seven post-Panamax gantry cranes worth RM175mil, coming in October, will increase the volume of cargo handled annually to over one million TEUs,” he said.

The cranes would be put into action in the second quarter next year, he added.

By : David Tan

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