Government responds to container cranes delivery delays

The government has agreed to temporarily lift the requirements on local ports to purchase shipside gantry cranes from one nominated manufacturer sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance.
 
This follows strong complaints from several ports which are hit by delays in the delivery of ship-to-shore cranes and has seriously jeopardized the efforts of the ports to win over shipping lines.
 
One of the country’s leading container port in fact complained that it lost three shipping lines because of its inability to offer sufficient cranes to the requirements of the shipping lines.
 
Another world’s leading liner operator is meanwhile mulling over adding an additional call at a local port because of lack of shipside crane support at the port.
 
It is understood that after meeting with several affected ports and the supplier, the government offered the ports a one year exemption to buy the shoreside cranes of their choice which could cost between RM20-RM30 million a piece.
 
While welcoming the initiative, port operators said the lifting of the requirement was hardly a solution to the woes facing the ports.
 
“In the first place it takes anything between 12-15 months to place an order and have the cranes delivered and therefore even if you order a crane it will be more than a year we can have it delivered,” the port operator said.
 
“But what is more disturbing is that we are stuck with the orders that we have already placed with this local supplier which is not only unable to deliver but seems to be threatening that it would be only be able to do so where it can if legal suits against the supplier for liquidated damages are removed,” said a port operator.
 
The port operator have urged the government to urgently rescind an 18-year old Treasury circular that gives right to only one Malaysian-based company to supply gantry cranes to all the ports in the country.
 
Several ports in the country which are seeking to expand their container handling capacity said it was time that the port operating companies be given right to secure these cranes not only without delay but also on a competitive basis.