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The
proposed move by the Malaysia
International Shipping Corporation
Bhd to double its stake to 30 per
cent in Northport Corp Bhd, which
operates at Port Klang the largest
container terminal in Malaysia, is
expected to secure the long-term
prospects of the port in the light
of emerging competitive port
environment in the region.
The
move, which has the potential to
turn Northport as the home-base
port for MISC, will give Northport
considerable stability and
security over a longer term
particularly as it steps up new
investments in its bid to keep its
lead at Port Klang.
MISC,
which together with its partners
in the Grand Alliance in the
Asia-Europe trade contributed to
237,900 TEUs to the total
throughput of 2.1 million TEUs
handled by Northport last year,
decided on increasing its stake
largely because it viewed the
investment as synergistic with its
expanding liner shipping services.
In
particular, the shipping
corporation, which announced
several new services this year,
including the latest Iberia Scan
Express (ISX) Service jointly with
the Hong Kong-based Orient
Overseas Container Line (OOCL),
has announced that it would be
expanding its current fleet of 27
liner vessels.
The
shipping line makes 26 calls
weekly at Northport under eight
main trade routes aside from a
growing spread of regional feeder
services linking Port Klang.
At
the press conference last week,
its chairman, Tan Sri Hassan
Marican confirmed that the
shipping corporation would proceed
with its plan to acquire four
super post panamax ships of 7,400
TEUs capacity.
He
said the acquisition of the
vessels, which are expected to be
deployed in the Asia-Europe trade,
are necessary in the light of the
shipping line’s commitment to
its partners in the Grand
Alliance.
The
Grand Alliance members, which
include P&O Nedlloyd and OOCL
have all built similar super post
panamax ships which have been
calling Northport recently.
The
arrival of the large ships has
prompted Northport to enhance its
infrastructure, especially by
acquiring new super post panamax
shoreside cranes with longer
outreach to serve the mega ships.
Last
week, the first of the five super
post panamax cranes (at a cost of
RM20 million apiece) was taken
delivery at Northport with much
pomp and grandeur.
The
giant crane will be particularly
ready to serve the largest
containership to call at Malaysian
port 7,400-TEU capacity container
vessel belonging to Hapag Lloyd
makes maiden call at the port in
the third quarter of this year.
At
a ceremony to mark the delivery of
the first super post panamax
gantry crane, Northport chairman
Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid,
the new cranes would help speed up
container handling at Northport by
30 per cent and enable the port to
handle calls by larger vessels.
“This
is the single largest investment
made by Northport for some time.
It is a long-term
investment,’’ Sarji.
According
to Sarji, Northport handled a
total of 1,323,079 TEUs in the
first seven months of this year.
This represented an increase of
9.7 per cent over the number
handled in the corresponding
period of last year.
“If
this trend continues until the end
of this year, we can expect to
surpass our target of 2.2 million
TEUs this year,’’ he said.
Transhipment
traffic at Northport continued to
grow strongly at 35.6 per cent in
the January-July period this year
with throughput rising to 571,364
TEUs from 421,359 TEUs in the
corresponding period last year.
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