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Danum 68 a 390 TEUs size container ship, one of
the largest of its kind to be made in Malaysia,
owned by Shin Yang Shipping, made its maiden
voyage to Northport.
“Danum 68 is the biggest container ship in our
group and is deployed in the domestic trade
linking Miri Port, Port Klang, Kuching and Kota
Kinabalu.” said Shin Yang’s Shipping Group
general manager, Capt Ting Hien Liong.
He said the deployment of the bigger ship to
serve the trade between ports in Sabah/Sarawak
and Peninsular Malaysia is a reflection of the
increasing volume trade between the two regions
in the country.
Box volume handled by Shin Yang at Northport has
grown tremendously from well below 10,000 TEUs
in 2003 to close 40,000 TEUs last year, an
average growth of 74 per cent over the last four
years, capt Ting said.
Cargoes moved consist generally of fast-moving
consumer goods, dangerous cargoes and reefer
cargoes.
“The launching of Danum 68 is part of our fleet
expansion programme in response to the growing
demand. As the demand picks-up, the company will
be adding more container ships in the domestic
trade in line with the company’s goal to cover
all Sarawak and Sabah ports in the near future,”
he said.
Plans are in the pipe-line to expand our vessel
carrying capacity to 400-500 teus from the
present average of 150-250 TEUs, said Capt Ting.
Speaking at the ceremony at Northport to mark
the maiden voyage of Danum 68, Capt Ting said
five years ago Shin Yang operated with only two
container ships.
“Today the company is well established in the
domestic trade with six container ships with
150-390 TEUs carrying capacity. We are deploying
an average of 14 ship calls per month at
Northport in 2006 compared with merely five ship
calls in 2003,” he said.
Capt Ting also said Danum 68 was built at its
own shipbuilding subsidiary, Shin Yang
shipbuilding Sdn Bhd. Our shipyard is able to
design and build various types of vessels to
suit our shipping requirements. All repairs and
maintenance jobs are done at our shipyard in
Sarawak and this minimizes the downtime of the
fleet he said.
Shin Yang Line has four weekly direct sailings
from Northport to seven key ports in East
Malaysia – Miri, Bintulu, Sibu, Sandakan, Tawau,
Kota Kinabalu and Kuching Port.
Hock Leong Shipping is Shin Yang’s agent in Port
Klang.
Capt Ting also stressed that Shin Yang is the
only player in the domestic trade which offers
direct connections between Port Klang and Miri
Port in Sarawak with the shortest transit time
of four days.
“Generally major players in the domestic trade
offer wider port coverage in a single string.
But we at Shin Yang believe in fewer but more
direct port calls for each string to ensure
faster transit time. In fact all our full
rotation of the existing four services shows
that our services link a maximum of three ports
directly. This has made it possible for us to
offer shortest transit times between specified
ports,” said Capt Ting.
On Northport as a base port, Capt Ting said the
company was very happy with the service level
rendered at Northport for all its four weekly
services calling here. Our average lifting is a
good testimony. We used to lift an average of
160 teus per ship call in 2003 and today we are
handling some 236 teus per ship call at the
global gateway port.
“The excellent domestic and global connectivity
at Northport which is linked to more than 250
globally makes Northport as the ideal choice for
our hub operation in Port Klang. Besides that
Northport handled 90 per cent of the East
Malaysia trade in Port Klang,” noted Capt Ting.
“We are not only the fast-growing domestic
feeder operator with double digit growth rate
but also the second biggest domestic feeder
carrier between Port Klang and East Malaysia
sector. We are very confident to sustain our
growth as Northport offers an excellent service
– fast clearance and consistent handling rate -
to all our ships,” said Capt Ting.
“With Northport as our transshipment hub, we
have further widened the direct global
connectivity with shippers in Sabah and Sarawak.
Today East Malaysian shippers have wider
selection of shipping lines and global
connectivity via Northport,” he said.
In the international route, Shin Yang operates a
total of 12 ocean liners having twice weekly
services to Japan from Miri under Shinline Sdn
Bhd and Thailine Sdn Bhd. The vessels offer
extensive connectivity to various ports in South
East Asia, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, India and Papua New Guinea transporting
various types of general cargoes including
machineries, timber and steel products. |
