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The first of the five super post panamax cranes was officially launched by the Chairman of Northport Corporation Bhd, Ybhg Tan Sri Dato' Seri (Dr) Ahmad Sarji bin Abdul Hamid at a function attended by close to 400
people from the shipping community. The newly acquired unit will boost the number of quay cranes at Malaysia's largest container port to a total of 25 spread over a quay length of 2.4km. The remaining additional 4 units are expected to be delivered to Northport by end of the year to accommodate the new and larger container vessels that are being phased in by the world's major shipping lines at Port Klang.
"The commissioning of the latest generation cranes is timely with the increased number of the latest generation vessels calling at Northport" said Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji. "These new generation cranes are expected to significantly increase the port's efficiency with a higher level of productivity in response to increasing customers' needs" Tan Sri added.
During the last 2 months, three of the largest container vessels afloat with a capacity of 6,802TEUs each, P&ONedlloyds Shackleton, P&O Nedlloyd Stuyvesant and P&ONedlloyd Houtman, made maiden calls to Northport. These vessels are deployed in the Grand Alliance's Eastbound Europe service that calls Northport weekly. The Grand Alliance members consisting of Hapag Lloyd, MISC, OCCL, NYK Lines and
P&ONedlloyd, are expecting even larger vessels to be deployed in their services in the coming Months.
Besides the purchase of the 5 units quay cranes, Northport has also invested significantly in the landside equipment. For the year 2001, Northport has taken delivery of a number of new landside equipment . To date 17 Straddle-Carriers, 17 Prime-movers and 17 trailers have been added to the existing fleet of equipment in Northport. The purchase of new equipment is in anticipation of the continuous growth in container volume.
Northport remains the largest terminal operator in Malaysia with one of the biggest container facilities in South East Asia. Reflecting its premier status, Northport still commands the largest market share in terms of container volume in Malaysia. For the year 2000, Port Klang, ranked the world's 12tth largest port, handled a total of 3,206,753TEUs of which 67% was handled by Northport. This year, despite operating in an increasingly competitive environment in respect to container trade, Northport still maintains a lion share of 64% in terms of volume handled in Port Klang. Northport even a higher market share of 72% for local laden containers.
Although growth has slowed down with a decline in export and reduced imports of intermediate goods in Malaysia, Overall Port Klang volume still records a healthy growth. Northport's volume continued to register a steady growth of 9.7% for the first 7 months of the year over the previous year. Northport handled a total of 1,329,079TEUs from January-July 2001.
Northport crossed the one million TEUs mark in the sixth month of this year and the month of July also recorded a remarkable increase in throughput. July recorded the highest throughput for the year in Northport by crossing the 200,000TEUs mark for the first time. Northport recorded a throughput of 205,730TEUs for July this year, a 7% growth over the same month last year.
Meanwhile, transshipment volume continued to soar. The volumes for Port Klang breached the millionth mark with 1,024,817TEUs handled during the first 7 months of this year compared to 703,278TEUs for the same period last year. Northport handled a total of 571,364TEUs, a growth of 35.6% from 421,359TEUs for the same period in mention.
The growth can be attributed to the introduction of new services and increase in frequency by mainline and feeder operators calling Northport. A number of new services were launched at Northport this year namely 'Japan China Services'(JSC) by Wan Hai Lines, the Malaysia-Korea Services (MKS) and Malacca Straits Service (MSS) by a consortium of four major Korean Shipping Lines. Two other new services connecting the Indian Sub Continent are the 'Chittagong Services' by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation and 'India Service' operated by a consortium consisting of Advance Container Line, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui OSK Lines and Samudera Indonesia.
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