Container traffic at principal ports - Port Klang and Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas - in the first three months of this year continued the high growth trend achieved in transshipment although domestically-sourced traffic appears to have slowed down significantly.

The volume of transshipment containers grew by more than 50 per cent and made up about 70 per cent of the total trade at the two ports while the domestically-source indigenous cargo grew poorly by about 3 per cent, reflecting a slower growth of imports and exports.

Based on preliminary figures, the growth in the first quarter this year at Port Klang and PTP surpassed substantially the total volume of containers handled by the two ports during the same period last year.

Port Klang - comprising the two container terminals at Northport and Westport - posted a sizeable growth totaling about 849,000 TEUs.

The strong growth of about 22 per cent at Port Klang has placed it on track to improve its splendid growth last year totaling 3.25 million TEUs accounted for by both Northport and Westport.

Last year Northport contributed 2.12 million TEUs while Westport made up 1.13 million TEUs of the total volume of containers handle by Port Klang.

Westport, maintaining its supreme confidence has forecast an ambitious box growth of nearly 50 per cent this year that will give the port a total of 1.6 milion TEUs for this year.

Chairman of Klang Multi Terminal Sdn Bhd, operator of Westport, Tan Sri Datuk Gnanalingan, said the terminal is targeting for container volumes of 1.6 million TEUs this year, representing 50 per cent jump over last year's throughput of 1.1m TEUs.

"We expect our mainline operators to continue to grow with us, as they have done to date," said Tan Sri G Gnanalingan.

Meanwhile in the south, the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP, achieved a volume of 386,394 TEUs during the period January to March 2001 representing a 46 per cent increase from the last quarter of 2000.

However PTP, which is expecting a lower growth of about 20 per cent in the second quarter, said it is on target to handle two million TEUs this year.

First quarter throughput also saw growing exports and imports, constituting

16,307 TEUs, approximately 4 per cent of the total throughput with the remaining 96 per cent constituting transshipment cargo. 

Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman, PTP CEO said " The 46 per cent growth rate to 386,394 TEUs is largely due to an increase of services at PTP and growing of existing

services.

In the last quarter the port received 534 container vessel calls and 251non-container vessels.

Apart from Maersk Sealand, other lines at PTP include APL-NOL, MCC Transport, Kimtrans, Bayswater (Kaz Industries), QC Line, Orient Express Line (OEL), Bengal Tiger Line (BTL) and Bangladeshi Shipping Line (BSC).