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The improvement in the Malaysia's
external trade has boosted the
volume of containers handled by
local ports.
Malaysia's external
trade posted a moderate growth rate
of 6.13 per cent totalling RM489.6
billion in the January- September of
this year. Exports rose by 4.6 per
cent and imports grew by 6.06 per
cent to RM262.8 billion and RM226.8
billion respectively during the
January- September period of this
year.
Parallel with healthy growth in the
external trade, all the major nine
container handling facilities in the
country recorded impressive growth
in the volume of containers handled
totalling 6.6 million TEUs in the
first nine months of this year.
The growth was a 20 per cent jump
from total containers handled by the
ports in the previous corresponding
period.
Port Klang, the leading gateway
served by two port operating
companies - Northport and Westport,
respectively - recorded 23.1 per
cent increase to 3.35 million TEUs
from 2.73 million TEUs handled in
the previous year.
Northport posted 7.6 per cent growth
during the period and consistent
with the growth in demand for its
facilities has launched a major
expansion programme with the
development of Container Terminal 3
(CT3) that is expected to become the
centrepiece of an innovative
approach to port operations and
management.
The first 178 metres of the
container berth, drawing15 metres
natural depth is ready for
commercial operation.
The second and third berth drawing
another 356 metre will be completed
by middle of 2004.
The full operations of CT3 will
raise Northport's capacity by
another one million TEus to about
six million TEUs in about two years
from now.
Parallel with the increasing demand
at its facility, Westport is
embarking on the development of 2km
linear container berth that will
expand its total quayline to 4.5 km.
Westport posted double digit growth
rate of 48 per cent to 1.5 million
TEUs in the first nine months of
this year compared with 1 million
TEUs in the corresponding period of
last year.
At the southern tip of the
Peninsular Malaysia - Pelabuhan
Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) and Johor Port
Bhd - handled 2.36 million TEUs.
With the volume handled, PTP has
emerged as the single biggest
container handling facility with
1.85 million TEUs in the first nine
months of this year.
The port which handled less than
500,000 TEUs two years ago managed
to handle some 1,000 TEUs more than
Northport in Port Klang.
Johor Port handled 516,332 TEUs
while Penang Port handled 477,335
TEUS during the period under review.
For the first time too, the growth
of container traffic at Bintulu
International Container terminal
posted remarkable growth.
The terminal posted highest growth
rate of 58.16 per cent in the first
nine months totalling 74,252 TEUs.
Kuantan Port, the only container
handling facility in the eastern
corridor has posted 16.8 per cent
growth in the first nine months
totalling 66,007 teus in the first
nine months of this year.
Ports in Sabah handled 125,115 TEUs
in the January-September period of
this year. |
