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The first air transshipment of cargo
that was consolidated at Northport
from shipments that arrived at the
port by sea from neighbouring ports
left KLIA last week heralding a new
growth area in the value-adding
distribution activities in the
country.
With the commencement of the new
transshipment mode, Northport, which
has designated its Northport
Distripark as the cargo
consolidation centre in association
with MASkargo, becomes the first
such facility in the country from
where cargo arriving by sea could be
shipped by air.
Northport, which has one of the best
surface infrastructure links with
accessibility by sea, road, rail,
now offers even a wider option for
shippers who need combined transport
mode to meet specific deadlines or
shipping requirements.
Shipments consolidated at the "air
zone" in Northport Distripark' are
ferried by road to Advance Cargo
Centre in KLIA from the cargo is
transported by MASkargo or other
carriers specified by shippers.
The "air zone" in Northport operated
by Maskargo offers on-line IT
applications for the agents to
submit relevant shipping and trade
documentations.
"Sea and air transshipment cargo is
not a new approach but its potential
is not fully tapped, developed and
optimized. With many new
developments in global trading
affecting air and sea transportation
of cargo, it is timely to develop
this combined mode of
transportation," said the managing
director/CEO of Northport (Malaysia)
Bhd, Basheer Hassan.
He said increase in the shipment
mode could be expected with the
liberalization of the trading regime
when AFTA takes effect next year.
Basheer said the distripark at
Northport is an ideal platform for
MASkargo to develop sea-air
transshipment traffic as the port
has developed an extensive mainline
and feeder network with more than 70
major shipping lines connecting Port
Klang to more than 300 ports around
the world.
Northport is also well connected
with dedicated rail landbridge
services to various dry and seaports
in Thailand and Singapore.
The full load containers (FCL) and
less container load containers (LCL)
discharged at Northport will be
de-consolidated at the CFS of
Northport and immediately trucked
down at Northport Distripark within
the Free Commercial Zone.
Under the simplified sea-air
transshipment process flow initiated
by MASkargo, the airway bills issued
at the "sea zone" of Maskargo" in
the container freight station in
Northport (which act as an extension
of "air zone" in Northport
Distripark).
The cargo load will then be packed
into unit load device (ULD) and
trucked by be Perkhidmatan Kargo
Udara MAS (PKUM) truck-flights to
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA),
which act as the transshipment
port,"
JJ Ong, the senior general manager
of Malaysia Airlines for Cargo said
in addition to cargo arriving at
Northport, cargo from Westport which
requires to be moved by air will be
also transported to the air zone at
Northport before moved to KLIA.
"We have daily two dedicated truck
deployed between Northport
Distripark and ACC for the
convenience of small shippers and
its takes approximately one hour
before reach KLIA," he added.
Ong said the other advantage of
using PKUM facility would be that
shippers need not to issue own bank
guarantees as required by the Royal
Customs for the movement of
cigarettes, liquor, petroleum,
textile and vehicle transportation
between movement of cargo between
the port and the ACC.
"We offer the bank guarantees with
Royal Customs and air transshipment
cargo shipper can enjoy our facility
during the transit period, "said Ong.
Ong said truck-flight operated
MASkargo subsidiary, PKUM need not
be confined to cargo loaded only
with MAS flights.
He said the services are offered to
other airlines calling KLIA.
"In fact we even work together with
Cargolux to carry the first shipment
of textile to Europe and a meeting
will soon be held among air carriers
calling at KLIA to further promote
the sea-air cargo movement," he
said.
Ong said the new venture would
contribute significantly on the
growth of transshipment volume at
the ACC in KLIA.
"The Centre recorded an impressive
transhipment growth rate of 36 per
cent totaling some 350,000 tonnes
over the last six months period. We
hope the new venture will gives an
additional 10-15 per cent growth in
our total tonnage next year and will
see transshipment as the new source
of cargo growth at ACC," he said
"We will be going on our marketing
mission in early next year to
Indonesia, Myanmar, and other Indian
sub-continent region as we noticed
shippers beginning to transship
their cargo via KLIA," said JJ Ong.
The Assistant General Manager of
Northport Distripark, Chia Kon Leong
said the sea-air cargo transshipment
activities would further boost
value-adding activities at CFS and
at Maskargo air zone in Northport
Distripark.
"We hope to handle textile,
cigarettes and some other time
sensitive cargo via the new venture
and this will further raised our
contribution to the parent company,
Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, " said
Chia. |
