ASEAN Ports Association Malaysia (MAPA)

The CMA-CGM Group expects to grow its container volume in Port Klang between 12 per cent and 13 per cent again this year, if everything goes reasonably well.

“It’s very difficult to predict. We don’t want to be too optimistic and tempt fate, because there is still a lot of uncertainties in the European and US economy but we think with the good recovery last year we can continue,” CMA-CGM & ANL Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw told reporters during an appreciation lunch to mark CMA-CGM’s for breaching 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in Port Klang.

CMA-CGM registered between 12 and 13 per cent growth in container volume in Port Klang in 2010, due to good growth in transshipment as well as local cargo.

Last year the company contributed about 26 per cent to Port Klang’s overall throughput volume.

Local cargo makes up about 10 – 12 per cent of the cargo CMA-CGM handles while the remainder is from transfer of containers and transshipment.

Whitelaw said however that the fourth quarter of 2010 saw some softening in cargo movement, as China’s consumer demand eased off.

“The fourth quarter was definitely softening a little bit partly because business tailed off, and China was not the big consumer demand everyone was expecting. Fourth quarter was a little bit softer from the third quarter,” Whitelaw said.

CMA-CGM started out in Port Klang in 1998, handling some 20,000 TEUs.

Meanwhile Port Klang Authority chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said he is confident that the port would be able to at least maintain its world ranking of the previous year. Port Klang was ranked 13th in the world’s busiest container port in 2009.

“We improved by 21 per cent last year, we still don’t know the world ranking for 2010 but we expect to at least maintain it. I don’t think many ports in the world have seen such a large jump,” Lee said.

Port Klang, which comprises Westports and Northport, recorded a 21 per cent rise in container volume in 2010, to 8.9 million TEUs.

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

By DAVID TAN (thestar.com.my)

GEORGE TOWN: The sea and airfreight business in Penang improved in the second quarter by about 12% and 20% respectively from the first quarter.

For the second quarter, sea throughput rose to 163,985 twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs) from 145,854 TEUs in the first quarter, while air cargo increased to 24,196 tonnes from 19,910.

Penang Freight Forwarders Association (PFFA) president Krishnan Chelliah told StarBiz that the second-quarter results showed the import and export of goods in Penang were gradually improving.

“The last six months have shown a steady increase month-on-month.

“However, compared with the second quarter of 2008, the airfreight business is down by about 33%.

“The sea-cargo business in the second quarter is down about 19% compared with the corresponding period of 2008,” he said.

Krishnan Chelliah says the second-quarter results show the import and export of goods in Penang were gradually improving. ‘The last six months have shown a steady increase month-on-month.’

Krishnan said the air and sea-freight volumes in July were the highest this year.

“This shows that we are recovering and bottoming out. In January 2009, the airfreight volume was the lowest in many years, and from February onwards there was a steady increase of 2% to 3% every month.

“In July, there was a jump of 4%. However, in the sea-freight business the month-on-month increase was 10% to 15%,” he said.

Krishnan said PFFA expected the growth to continue in the second half of this year.

PFFA secretary-general Bryan Kor Hock Choon said the third quarter should see the sea and airfreight business in Penang improve by about 10% over the second quarter, and the fourth quarter by 5% over the third quarter.

“Generally, in December, business slows down for freight forwarders,” he said.

Krishnan also urged the State and Federal Governments to continue attracting foreign direct investments to maintain the momentum of growth and recovery.

»Exporters are doing less business because the number of regional buyers in Asia had dropped« DATUK TAN CHOO HIN

Meanwhile, Penang Importers & Exporters Association (PIEA) president Datuk Tan Choo Hin said that for the first six months this year, PIEA members imported about 33,000 TEUs of cargo against about 46,000 TEUs in the previous corresponding period.

“The exporters also exported less in the first six months, shipping about 45,000 TEUs compared with about 70,000 TEUs in the previous corresponding period,” Tan said.

He said imports by PIEA members were lower in the first half because February, March and April were generally slow months, the festive season was already over, and the local demand had weakened.

“The peak season starts from May and lasts till the fourth quarter,” he said.

“Exporters are also doing less business because the number of regional buyers in Asia had dropped.

“At the recent China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, the number of purchasers from South-East Asia dropped by about 30%. We see, instead, more buyers from India and the Middle East,” he said.

Tan said the third and fourth quarters should see an improvement but overall, business this year would not be better than in 2008.

He added that there was “no visibility” as to the business environment for 2010.

PETALING JAYA: A number of port operators in the country have reported higher throughput volume for March but are cautious about volume going forward as the signs of recovery are still weak.

According to them, imports and exports as measured by twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) were up for March while transhipments – the shipment of goods to an intermediate destination before moving to another destination – were also up.

Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam had noted earlier in a commentary that in March, Westports’ total volume, including imports, exports and transhipments, was up 10% compared with the previous three months.

He said the immediate question that came to mind was whether these were signs of recovery or if this was due to inventory corrections after managers cancelled their orders between October and December last year.

“As such, between April and June, we’ll begin to notice that the world will not only reinstate its inventory levels but also increase its orders simply because life must go on,” Gnanalingam said.

Captain Ismail Hashim, chief executive officer of Port of Tanjung Pelepas Sdn Bhd, which operates the number one transhipment port in the country, said volume grew 23% to 469,000 TEUs for March compared with February.

He said it was tricky to accurately predict the underlying reasons behind the recent increase in volume. “Whether the increase is sustainable over the longer term remains to be seen,” Ismail told StarBiz in an e-mail reply.

He said if the recent upturn was due to restocking of manufacturers’ orders as a result of them halting production abruptly earlier on when the crisis first started then the spike in volume could be “just a temporary pattern.”

Penang Port Sdn Bhd general manager Obaid Mansor said the Butterworth container terminal saw a bottoming in January when throughput was 30% lower than October 2008.

“The upturn in business was really registered in the export transhipment trade provided by our industrial hinterland,” he said, adding that a combination of improved demand for manufactured products, re-stocking, trade credit availability and demand from China and India could be the factors that contributed to an improvement in volume.

By FINTAN NG