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Major ports in Malaysia are investing more than
RM6 billion over the next few years to further
expand their capacities and improve the cargo
handling facilities and services.
The investments announced by the Malaysian ports
is seen as a bold move to strengthen their role
in the national and regional ports system and
seize new opportunities spawned by changing
shipping trends, including the expanding role in
transshipment.
Leading the charge is Port of Tanjung Pelepas,
Malaysia’s largest container port which has
indicated that it would be investing an
additional RM3 billion in capital expenditure
over the next few years.
Part of this capital expenditure will be
channeled towards the expansion of two new
berths at a cost of RM360 million. Work on the
720-metre berths which commenced early this year
will enlarge PTP’s annual terminal handling
capacity to 10 million TEUs from present
capacity of 8 million TEUs.
The development of additional container handling
facilities will cater for new customers PTP is
seeking to attract and also to cater to the
growth in existing customers like Maersk Line
and Evergreen. The port, which hopes to plays a
catalytic role in the development of Iskandar
Development Corridor, has successfully secured
an agreement with Malaysia’s national carrier,
MISC Bhd, to mount regular sailings to/from the
port.
The expansion by PTP, ranked as the 18th largest
container port in the world, will seek to
exploit the transshipment business in the region
and further strengthen the role of the port as
one of the main transshipment hubs in the
region. Plans are also on the drawing board for
the development of an additional 720 metres for
RM800 million for potential customers.
In the central region, Westports (M) Malaysia
and Northport (Malaysia) Bhd the two operators
of port terminals in Port Klang have announced
major physical expansion projects worth RM1.38
billion to cope with bigger and deeper draft
container ships. The investments by the two
ports at Port Klang will further boost their
transshipment capacity as well as cope with the
increasing size of vessels calling at the two
ports.
Westports, which has a larger transshipment
cargo base, has embarked on an RM800mil
three-year expansion programme since last year.
Westports will spend RM460mil for its first
phase of expansion scheduled for completion by
end of 2008. The first 300-metre of the
container berth was completed in April and the
remaining 300-metre will be ready by the end of
this year, bringing the total length of the
container berth at Westports to 3.2km.
On the other hand, Northport (M) Bhd has
announced an RM585mil expansion plan with an eye
to serve ultra-size container ship up to 12,000
TEUs. Bulk of the allocation will go towards
financing the development of the Berth 8A
container terminal (CT3). With the development
of CT3 and the redevelopment of the break bulk
terminal for container handling, the container
quay line (including CT1 and CT2 and CT3) will
run linearly to 3.2km.
The new berth at CT3 will initially serve one
ultralarge container ship at a time and plans
are in pipeline to extend the berth further to
handle more such vessels when the need arises. |
