A 350-metres
Container Berth to Start This Year
“CARGO
handling capacity of Kuantan Port will
be greatly enhanced with the completion
of 80-ha inner harbour basin excavation
work by third quarter of next year. The
creation of the new harbour basin will
pave the way for the construction of 11
berths with an additional 3.55
kilometres berth line,” said the
Executive Director /Chef Operating
Officer, Dato’ Mohamed Awang Tera.
Dato’
Mohamed briefed the Transport Minister,
Dato’ Seri Ling Liong Sik on the
latest progress of the dredging work
during
his official visit to Kuantan
port on December 2, 2000. Dato’
Mohamed said almost 78 per cent of the
work has been completed and it was six
months ahead of he initial schedule.
“Kuantan
Port will be a supply –driven Port
with these facilities. The capacity of
our port would be increased to 15
million tonnes per annum
from
present capacity of 9 million
tonnes,” said Dato’ Mohamed.
To meet the rising demand of
local companies within the hinterland,
KPC plan to construct two new container
berths, measuring 350 metres. The
construction work of the RM48 million
container berth is schedule to start by
middle of 2001, and will be ready
for commercial operation by the third
quarter of 2002. Kuantan Port started to
handle containerised
cargo in 1990 with one service
per week and registered an annual
throughput of 2,343 TEUs. Since then the
container volume has recorded a
double-digit growth with several new
carriers at Kuantan Port. Today, there
are 10 schedule services weekly served
by the regional Container Lines,
Evergreen Lines, Maersk Lines, Pacific
International Lines, Malaysia Shipping
Corporation and Malaysian International
Shipping Corporation Bhd.
Container traffic rose by
10.98 per cent to 62,214 TEUs in
2000 compared with 56,056 TEUs in 1999.
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