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Westport
dry bulk terminal has made a major
leap into the world-class dry bulk
handling facility when managed to
discharge 25,500 tonnes of bulk
raw sugar in record time of 2.5
days. The raw sugar discharged
from the 174 LOA, Eco Vision on
her maiden voyage at Westport on
August 15, 2001.
Said
the Chairman of Austbulk Shipping
Sdn Bhd, (ASSB) Billy G H Tan: “
This is an excellent performance
at this relatively new port. The
port has given a faster turnaround
time for my vessel against initial
indication of five days to clear
this consignment. Westport’s
ability to handle bigger size
bulkers with discharging rate up
to 7,500 MT of raw sugar per day
makes it the leading dry bulk
terminal for bulk sugar handling
in the region."
The
Malaysian registered Eco Vision is
one of the six vessels owned by
Austbulk Shipping Sdn Bhd,
discharged raw sugar from
Bundaberg (Australia) for its
customer, Central Sugar Refinery.
The raw sugar was discharged at a
rate of 400 metric tones per hour
through a conveyor belt to central
sugar's storage facility within
Westport area.
Upon
discharging the raw sugar, MV Eco
Vision sailed to Australia to load
a full cargo of Rutile and
Concentrates from Geraldton to
Taiwan and Japan.
ASSB
was incorporated in October 1995
in Kuala Lumpur as an investment
holding company focusing on marine
transportation. ASSB joint
ventured with the Development Bank
of Singapore (DBS Bank) to acquire
small handy size bulk carriers
ranging from 21,500 dwt to 26,840
dwt.
According
to Tan, ship management services
for the group’s vessels and
operational support for both owned
and chartered-in vessels provided
by Tan Ecoship Sdn Bhd a wholly
owned subsidiary of Austbulk.
"Over
the years ASSB has carved a niche
in the parcel trade of minor dry
bulk cargoes from Australia to
destinations in the Far East.
As a result the company went on to
acquire 6 more vessels with
specifications suitable for cross
trade. Today Austbulk operates 11
to 12 vessels at any given time
through chartering arrangement of
varying duration i.e. from per
trip to periods of 2 years. The
reliability of its services has
resulted in the company being
awarded the long term contracts of
Affreightment ranging from 60,000
tonnes to 150,000 tonnes per
annum," said Tan.
According to the general manager
of Westport Conventional Services,
Chai Lih Yunn the port would be
handling more than 2.3 million
tones of dry bulk cargoes by end
of this year with the entry of new
customers and also expanding
throughput levels from existing
clients.
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