Sarawak’s latest deepwater terminal at Kg Senari, about nine kms from the river mouth of Sarawak River has commenced operation effective June 25 this year. 
 
“The deepwater port with 635 metre linear multipurpose berth has started to handle container traffic bound to Kuching Port,” said the management service manager of Kuching Port, Lee Hien Soon.
 
He said all container operation would now be centered at Kg Senari Terminal. Previously container traffic at Kuching port was handled at Tanah Puteh and Pending Terminal some 18 kms from the Sarawak River mouth. 
 
The new terminal, which covers a 60 hectares site, can accommodate vessels up to 20,000 dwt with a maximum overall length of 200 metres and drawing a depth of 11 metres. 
 
The terminal is backed up a 160,000 sqm container yard and 8,000 sq m container freight station. In addition, 45,000 sq metre site has been designated for open storage and an additional 20,000 sq metres space for a covered storage area.
 
"The terminal is equipped with two quay cranes and one mobile harbour crane to handle the fast growing volume of container traffic. With quay crane and other land site handling equipment we will able to provide good service to shippers utilising our facilities," said Lee. 
 
He said the new terminal with seven million tones capacity is expected to attract bigger container carriers with fixed sailing schedule. 
 
The terminal is also equipped with 192-reefer point to cater for the reefer cargo such as fresh fruits, frozen foodstuff and other temperature-sensitive cargo.
 
The completion of Kg Senari facilities has raised the combined handling capacity of Kuching Port to well above 10 million tones per annum. 
 
The terminal also will cater for the fast growing Demak Laut Industrial Park, which is being developed for the light and medium industries like timber based, food -processing, metalwork, and machinery assembly.
 
Kuching Port handled 1.19 million tones of containerised traffic in the first five months of this year. 
 
Although container traffic remained as the fastest growing type of traffic, non-containerised cargo still accounts for a major proportion of the traffic handled at Kuching Port. 
 
Non-containerised traffic made up 49.8 per cent or 1.17 million revenue tones of the total traffic handled at Kuching Port in the January-May period of this year.