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

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

PETALING JAYA: Three major ports in Malaysia are confident they will meet their volume targets this year but are bracing for slower growth next year due to the global economic downturn.

Ports that have been recording substantial growth over the years have not been spared the whiplash from the global economic crisis.

Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader

Northport (M) Bhd managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader told StarBiz the port would be able to achieve its volume target of slightly less than three million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) this year, up 4.9% from 2.86 million TEUs recorded last year.

“This is because we had done well in the first half of this year but the last quarter is a little bit slow,” he told reporters after delivering a talk the Selangor Freight Forwarders and Logistics Association in Port Klang recently.

Northport’s November volume stood at 261,251 TEUs, down 7.3% against the same month last year.

Going forward, Basheer said Northport would be very concerned about the country’s economy as it depended a lot on trade.

“If Malaysian trade is affected, of course it will have some impact on our business. But with low gearing of almost 0%, we are quite robust to withstand the onslaught,” he said, adding that Northport had survived the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98.

He added that Northport would continue to operate prudently and would look into postponing taking on less important costs, such as advertising, next year.

Echoing a similar oulook, Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd will not be expecting the usual double-digit volume growth next year that it had been enjoying previously.

But the port is still expecting to post a 16.3% volume growth to five million TEUs this year.

Ruben Emir Gnanalingam

For the month of November, Westports still recorded a growth of 5.4% to 390,000 TEUs against November last year.

Executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the port industry would see some decline in volume next year.

“Looking at the current global economy and its prospects going forward into 2009, it will take a long time to recover, maybe until 2010,” he told StarBiz.

Malaysia’s leading transhipment terminal operator, Port of Tanjung Pelepas Sdn Bhd (PTP), is also on track to meet its volume target of 5.8 million TEUs this year, an increase of 6.2% against last year, although it has felt a slight volume contraction in the last quarter of this year.

PTP recorded a decrease of 2.5% to 449,000 TEUs in November compared to the same month last year.

The port expects to achieve commendable growth next although it has acknowledged that it would not be as robust as in previous years.

Alan Tan

Transways Logistics (M) Sdn Bhd, a logistics provider in Port Klang, expects the volume of exports to decrease further after the first quarter of next year.

Its managing director Alan Tan told StarBiz that based on the current situation where furniture and food exporters were facing shrinking demand, the export volume at Port Klang was expected to fall between 20% and 30% next year, especially after the first quarter.

“But local logistics companies such as Transways are currently experiencing a surge in demand from multinationals as they open more tenders to other players which ignite competitive pricing rather than depending on one or two logistics providers.

“This is in tandem with the cost cutting measures of the multinationals in this gloomy economy.

“Warehouse business is also doing well to store commodities that are currently having price downtrend such as scrap metal,” he said.

By SHARIDAN M. ALI

CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container shipping company, expects double-digit growth for its container volume at Westports next year despite the global economic slowdown.

The target is achievable with bigger ships coming into service, said CMA CGM Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw.

“We are projecting a double-digit growth for 2009,” he said on the sidelines of Symposium on Ports and Shipping New Developments in Port Klang on Wednesday.

The company, based in France, has registered 2.0 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) as on Tuesday, approaching the 2008 target of 2.1 million TEUs. Last year, it generated a volume of 1.7 million TEUs.

Among CMA CGM’s new bigger ships set to enter Westports are the 11,500-TEU vessels coming this week and the 13,500-TEU vessels in 18 months’ times.

According to Whitelaw, the company sees Malaysia as a big potential as the country has a balanced portfolio with commodities and manufacturing products as well as a steady balance of trade.

He said despite the current global economic turmoil, the company’s operations in China were not badly affected mainly because of its large office network in the country.

CMA CGM is also trying to maintain its freight rate at the right level although the market rate has dropped over the last few months, Whitelaw said. – Bernam

By : btimes.com.my

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