|
Reflecting
the recovery of the economy in the
first quarter of this year following
its contraction after the September
11 incident, the trade at local
ports showed a parallel resurgence
by registering 22 per cent growth in
container traffic totaling 2.6
million TEUs.
Riding
on the back of the 1.1 per cent
expansion of the economy last
quarter as reported by Bank Negera,
all major ports in the country
recorded positive growth with the
highest growths recorded by Bintulu
Port (64 per cent) Westport (56 per
cent) and Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas
(34 per cent).
Port
Klang, comprising Northport and
Westport, continued to be the
premier container port with a
combined volume totaling 1.4 million
TEUs in the first quarter of this
year compared with 1.1 million TEUs
handled the same quarter last year.
Northport
remained the larger of two ports at
Port Klang and still held on to its
position as the country’s top
container port with a container
volume totaling 770,000 TEUs handled
in the first three months of this
year.
Westport
handled an impressive 636,000 TEUs,
representing 56 per cent increase
over volumes handled the previous
year.
However,
the fast-rising PTP appears poised
to catch up with Northport with a
volume of 735,000 TEUs compared with
546,900 TEUs in the first quarter of
last year.
The
remarkable growth of PTP is expected
to be further accelerated in the
second half of the year following
the recent winning over of the
Taiwanese owned Evergreen Line that
is expected to contribute about 1.2
million TEUs to PTP for the full
year next year.
The
increase at the recently-opened
Bintulu International Container
Terminal was significant although
this was largely due to the small
base from which the port is growing.
Volume
of containers handled at Bintulu
rose from 18,185 TEUs to 29,900 TEUs
during the period under review.
Both
Penang and Johor Port, which
suffered reverses last year, saw
marginal increase in volume of
containers handled to 212,000 TEUs
and 198,700 TEUs respectively.
Kuantan
Port continued its promising growth
with a increase of 15 per cent to
29,600 TEUs.
The
growth of traffic at Penang, Johor
and Kuantan however, is significant
since unlike Westport, Northport and
PTP, the increase in volume of
containers at these ports are
hinterland cargo requiring only
single count.
Containers
handled Westport, Northport and PTP,
which are emerging as transshipment
hub ports by handling traffic for
third countries, are counted twice
or more.
|
