Malaysian port operators have been urged to maintain as supply-driven approach and take pro-active measures to provide consistent world class port facilities and services, including using advanced information technology in port operations.
 
Making this call, the Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik said this was important as the long term prospects for container handling is very attractive with the growth in world box trade to hit 339 million TEUs in 2005 from 225 million TEUs last year. 
 
Transhipment volume is expected to rise from 55.0 million TEUs in 2000 to 92.3 million TEUs in 2005. 
 
“It is our desire that a substantial portion of this transshipment traffic will be handled by Malaysian ports," said the Minister of Transport, at the opening of an international shipping conference in Subang Jaya last week.
 
He said among the proactive measures initiated by the government to tap the fast growing potential container traffic include encouraging the private sector to be pro-active in their response to cater for the increasing ship sizes.
 
The Minister said increasing ship size would result in reduction in operation and voyage cost for operators. 
 
The increasing ship sizes means ships have to keep moving, minimizing the number of port calls and achieve a high level of productivity at ports. 
 
“To keep with these trend we will have to be attractive enough with bigger threshold volume, higher connectivity and equipped with latest technology to handle such large ships,” he said.
 
In addition, the government has also reduce bureaucracy and urged the private terminal operators to form smart partnership with global port operators. 
 
Smart partnership is important as the top five port operators handled half of the world box trade totaling 230 million TEUs in 2000. 
 
Ling said the move by Westport to team up with the Hong Kong-based Hutchinson International Terminals and Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas with Maersk Seland has allowed Malaysian Ports to engage in this global network and raise the level of competition for ports around the world.