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Bangpakong
Container Terminal, near Bangkok in
south Thailand is rapidly making
mark as a fast-growing container
terminal in the regional trade.
The
terminal, which has less than 200
metres long berth, last year managed
to handle 150,000 TEUs – almost
twice the volume handled by Kuantan
Port in Malaysia.
“Despite
the regional and domestic economic
slow-down we are confident of
handling 200,000 TEUs this year,”
said the chairman of the terminal,
C. T Lim.
The
terminal located at the mouth of
Bangpakong River, some 50 km from
the Bangkok Port, is a private
initiative involving Malaysian-Thai
interests.
The
terminal, which is linked to a 52 km
long elevated highway with Bangkok,
especially caters for the
fast-growing industrial estate at
the eastern seaboard of Thailand.
“The
excellent infrastructure allows us
to move containers swiftly and
efficiently from the terminal to any
part of Thailand and we have regular
trucking service to and from our
terminal with Lat Krabang ICD, some
20 km away from our terminal a
Bangkok Port,” Lim told NST in
Bangpakong recently.
“Container
trade at the terminal remained
buoyant as the number of
distribution and trading houses are
using the terminal’s ICD as their
international procurement base. To
date three major trading houses
namely Nike, Ikea and Toyota have
set-up their logistics units and
have been distributing their various
products to the global market via
the terminal,” said Lim.
He
said the three major distribution
houses have taken up some 10,000 sq
meter area at the company’s
freight station.
“We
are looking into other option like
converting existing warehouses for
more value-added activities. Our ICD
facilities which are adjacent to the
terminal allow us to provide quick
and efficient door-to-door service
like stevedoring, transport,
container weighing, sorting of cargo
and speedy customs clearance as well
as stuffing/unstuffing of
containers,” said Lim.
The
terminal is now being served by four
regular dedicated service mounted by
HUBLine and CMA-CGM.
The
container yard has 2,842 total
ground slots and is capable of
handling 15,000 TEUs at any point of
time.
The
terminal receives approximately 17
calls monthly to various
destinations in Malaysia, the
Philippines and China.
“With
the increasing number of new
services and additional customers we
are very confident to handle 200,000
TEUs by end of this year,” said
Lim.
He
said the company has invested RM10
million on mobile harbour crane to
handle fast growing volume of
container traffic.
“We
will be also looking into the option
of deepening the approach channel
and extending the present container
berth to cater for larger vessels
and handle other type of traffic in
near future,” said Lim.
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