Bintulu Port expects higher revenue on improved cargo throughput
Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd (BPHB) is eyeing a 4.2% revenue growth to RM550mil for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2013 compared with RM527.85mil last year, said in the company's press release.
Chief executive officer Datuk Mior Ahmad Baiti said this would be achieved on the back of an anticipated increase in cargo throughput, as Sarawak's economy was expected to benefit from better commodity trading.
“Last year, we handled about 41.5 million tonnes of cargo throughput while in 2013, we are targetting about 44.5 million tonnes,” Mior Ahmad said after the company's AGM.
He said the cargo trade of liquified natural gas (LNG) would remain its main contributor.
BPHB expects LNG to contribute around 25 million tonnes of its total cargo throughput of 44 million tonnes. The rest would consist of other cargo such as container rice and palm oil, he said.
Mior Ahmad said the company was on track to achieve its target, as evidenced by its performance for the first quarter of the current financial year.
“For the first quarter, we have seen a near 10% increase in throughput compared with last year and this bodes well for our target,” he said. He said BPHB saw a drop in throughput cargo performance mainly due to the decline of about 5% in LNG throughput following weaker demand from Japan.
The company also expects palm oil cargo to grow to 3.1 million tonnes this year from 2.93 million tonnes in 2012. He noted that Bintulu Port was presently handling almost all or more than 90% of Sarawak's palm oil trade output.
Meanwhile, Mior Ahmad said he expected the interim phase of the construction of the Samalaju Port to be completed in August, when it aims to begin operations.
“There are already industries operating in the Samalaju Industrial Park although the park is not ready yet. Two plants an aluminium smelter owned by Press Metal Bhd and a polycrystalline silicon plant by Tokuyama have started production,” he said.
According to the company, two other plants are slated to commence operations by 2016 ‑ a manganese smelter owned by Singapore-basedOM Holdings Ltd and another similar plant by Hong Kong-based Asia Mineral Ltd.