The Port of Tanjung Pelepas, the biggest transhipment port in Malaysia, is confident of achieving its cargo volume target of 6.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) this year, supported by the expected increase in East-West trade Deputy chief executive officer Azlan Shahrim said the port’s volume for the first half of the year stood at 3.2 million TEUs – a 13% jump compared with the same period last year.
“Based on current trends, we expect to finish the year with about 6.5 million TEUs compared with 6 million TEUs last year. This is in line with the growth forecast for the transhipment industry of between 5% and 10% this year,” he told StarBiz.
Azlan said PTP was quite optimistic of achieving the target despite a potential slowdown in world trade in the final quarter of 2010.
“Because of our proximity to the main trade lanes, we stand to benefit from the expected increase in trade between East and West. Westbound trade between the the Far East and North Europe is expected to rise by 6% this year and eastbound trade between North Europe and the Far East is expected to grow by 9.7%,” he said.
Azlan said PTP was well positioned to capture this additional volume as it had extra capacity. “This is a result of the completion of new berths last year, which has increased capacity to 8.5 million TEUs,” he said.
On expansion, Azlan said PTP expected to build berth 13 and 14 over the next three years. Phase 2 of PTP’s expansion plan, which began in 2005, covers the building of eight additional berths (berth 7 to berth 14). Six of these new berths have already been completed.
The port currently has 12 berths measuring a total of 4.3km in length with an annual handling capacity of 8.5 million TEUs.
“We expect to build berths 13 and 14 over the next three years depending on the state of the global economy and projected market demand. Once completed, our total 14 berths would increase our capacity to 11 million TEUs,” he said.
Azlan said whilst the local and global economy had improved significantly in the first half of 2010, a substantial portion of the growth was due to the low base experience during the height of the global economic crisis early last year.
“But still, economic indicators suggest a positive full-year outlook. Drewry, a shipping consultant, recently revised its outlook on global container traffic for 2010 from 5.2% to 8.5%.
“Idle capacity has also declined to about 2% as shipping lines have started deploying idle vessels,” he said.
Azlan also said the International Monetary Fund had projected China’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 10.5% in 2010 and the GDP of five Asean countries – Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia – to grow by 5.4%.
“These encouraging indicators suggest that the performance of ports will generally improve in 2010 and 2011,” he said.
“Based on current trends, we expect to finish the year with about 6.5 million TEUs compared with 6 million TEUs last year. This is in line with the growth forecast for the transhipment industry of between 5% and 10% this year,” he told StarBiz.
Azlan said PTP was quite optimistic of achieving the target despite a potential slowdown in world trade in the final quarter of 2010.
“Because of our proximity to the main trade lanes, we stand to benefit from the expected increase in trade between East and West. Westbound trade between the the Far East and North Europe is expected to rise by 6% this year and eastbound trade between North Europe and the Far East is expected to grow by 9.7%,” he said.
Azlan said PTP was well positioned to capture this additional volume as it had extra capacity. “This is a result of the completion of new berths last year, which has increased capacity to 8.5 million TEUs,” he said.
On expansion, Azlan said PTP expected to build berth 13 and 14 over the next three years. Phase 2 of PTP’s expansion plan, which began in 2005, covers the building of eight additional berths (berth 7 to berth 14). Six of these new berths have already been completed.
The port currently has 12 berths measuring a total of 4.3km in length with an annual handling capacity of 8.5 million TEUs.
“We expect to build berths 13 and 14 over the next three years depending on the state of the global economy and projected market demand. Once completed, our total 14 berths would increase our capacity to 11 million TEUs,” he said.
Azlan said whilst the local and global economy had improved significantly in the first half of 2010, a substantial portion of the growth was due to the low base experience during the height of the global economic crisis early last year.
“But still, economic indicators suggest a positive full-year outlook. Drewry, a shipping consultant, recently revised its outlook on global container traffic for 2010 from 5.2% to 8.5%.
“Idle capacity has also declined to about 2% as shipping lines have started deploying idle vessels,” he said.
Azlan also said the International Monetary Fund had projected China’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 10.5% in 2010 and the GDP of five Asean countries – Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia – to grow by 5.4%.
“These encouraging indicators suggest that the performance of ports will generally improve in 2010 and 2011,” he said.