Liquid Bulk Traffic

Liquid cargo traffic at Port Klang still accounts for a substantial volume of the total traffic despite the growing importance of containerized cargo.

Various types of liquid bulk cargo ara handled at Northport and Westport. The total volume of liquid bulk cargo at Port Klang totalled last year at 5.1 million tones, making up about 10 per cent of the total throughput at the port. Port Klang last year handled a total of 60.97 million freight tonnes.

In 1999, Port Klang shipped 1.7 million tonnes of various liquid bulk cargo, with palm oil remaining the single largest export cargo with a total volume of 1.62 million tonnes.

This was followed by export of latex and other chemical products.

Import of liquid bulk cargoes however declined by 12.8 per cent to 3.4 million in 1999 compared with 3.9 million tonnes in the previous year. The decline was attributed to the shifting of Petronas Jet-1 fuel depot from Northport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang.

Petroleum traffic handled at both terminals - Northport and Westport - recorded 3.1 million tonnes last year.

The two terminals also handled alkane, coconut oil, hexane, methanol and toulene.

Klang Port Management has 780 meters of berth at its liquid bulk terminal. It handled total of 2.9 million tonnes of various liquid bulk traffic making up about 56.8 per cent of the total liquid bulk trade at Port Klang.

This was followed by Westport with 1.05km berth length which handled 1.66 million tonnes of liquid throughput.Private jetties handled 799,202 tonnes last year.

The designation of Westport as the hazardous cargo handling zone by the Port Klang Authority has raised the traffic in petroleum and petrochemical throughput.

Currently, Westport's liquid bulk terminal handles mainly petroleum, liquefied petroleum gas, bunker fuels, chemical and other chemical by-products.

The terminal will handle edible oil with the completion of the palm oil refinery by Mewah Oil outside the port area.

"With all these development we will be handling liquid traffic in the region of 2.5 million tonnes by end of this year, said the Liquid Bulk Terminal Manager of Westport, Safian Sauri.