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A
significant development in the
cargo handling equipment market
recently has been the unexplained
relaxation by the Government of a
10-year-old “policy” mandating
all port operators in the country
to buy only Argentina-made IMPSA
quayside gantry cranes.
The
“policy” ended last month with
the signing of an agreement
between Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas
Sdn Bhd and Noel Crane Systems
Gmhb.
The
agreement paved the way for PTP to
buy 10 super post panamax cranes
to complete its equipment
inventory requirement under phase
one and supplement its earlier
fleet of 14 IMPSA cranes.
The
relaxation of this policy, which
opens up a potentially RM1 billion
market, means other makes of the
container gantry cranes can now
find some market in Malaysia which
is viewed as one of the most
buoyant markets in Asia.
(Gantry
cranes, or sometime also referred
to as shoreside quay cranes, are
specially-designed cranes to load
and unload containers from ships
berthing alongside. The cranes
have an outreach between 35-65
metres, a capacity to lift between
40-65 tonnes and stand between 50
– 80 metres high, depending on
whether they are of the panamax,
post-panamax or super post-panamax
type.)
Impsa,
which sold more about 40 cranes in
over the years to ports in
Malaysia, including more than 20
to PTP and Westport, counted
Malaysia as its the largest market
in the region. Impsa has supplied
similar cranes to other ports in
the region, including Sri Lanka
and Indonesia.
Others
ports in the country which also
purchased Impsa cranes include
Bintulu Port, Kuantan Port, Penang
Port, Klang Container Terminal,
Klang Port Management and Johor
Port.
It
is understood the policy favouring
IMPSA stemmed largely from the
government’s desire to promote
greater South-South trade.
Arising
from this, the Ministry of Finance
instructed government agencies to
look at countries in Latin America
and Africa to foster more trade,
including, to rectify trade
imbalances.
However
even private port operators were
directed to favour the cranes
manufactured by IMPSA which set up
a fabrication facility at the
privatsied naval dock yard in
Lumut.
With
the monopoly now broken intense
competition is expected in the
Malaysian market, especially
makers of other models from S
Korea, China and Japan.
In
the past local ports had acquired
cranes from Italy, S Korea, Japan
and Australia.
Industry
sources estimate the latent demand
for the shoreside gantry cranes in
the two years could top about RM1
billion, including planned
acquisitions by PTP, Northport and
Westport under their respective
expansion plans.
A
wider range of models of gantry
cranes are expected to line the
quaylines of ports in particular
the super-post panamax type that
are now being sought by the larger
ports like Port Klang and PTP to
cater for the container handling
requirement of the super post-panamax
container ships.
Other
makes of the shoreside gantry
cranes include Hyundai, Kone,
Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Noell, Paceco
and the China-based ZPMC as the
world market leader with an
unprecedented 80 cranes on its
order book for this year.
It
is understood that ZPMC, which has
made a major foray into the US
market recently as well as to
ports in northern Europe, has cast
its eyes on Malaysian ports,
especially Port Klang.
In
addition to the shoreside
container cranes, the cargo
handling requirements at ports are
served by an array of landside
container handling equipment.
The
rubber tyred gantry crane is an
important container handling
equipment that is used to stack
containers in rows at the
container yards in the ports.
There
are about 100 RTGs at the local
ports and another 70 acquired this
year, some of which are yet
delivered.
In
addition to the RTGs, ports are
now acquiring high reach stackers
to achieve high stowage factor as
these reach stackers provide
considerable maneuverability and
are easier to operate.
Like
the RTGs, sometimes a four-legged
straddle carriers are also used to
store and stack containers at the
ports, especially at Northport has
more than 70 of these.
Other
cargo handling equipment for the
supporting cargo handling
equipment for landside operations
at the ports include, tractors
(prime movers), trailers and
forklifts.
Overall,
the potential for container and
cargo handling equipment market
could exceed RM1.6 billion for
announced port expansion projects
in the country.
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