Westport's box volumes up 4 times in first half

M'sian govt's call to use domestic ports pays off for terminal operator

By Felix Chan

[SINGAPORE]

Aggressive marketing and the recent calls by the Malaysian government urging shippers to use local ports have been paying off for Klang's Westport, which saw its container volumes in the first six months of the year jump four times.

Westport, the newest of the three private terminals at Port Klang, handled a record 162,000 TEUs (20-ft equivalent units) in the first six months of the year, up from 38,000 TEUs in the same period last year.

According to a report in the Malaysian Shipping Times, average monthly volumes handled have since increased from 27,000 TEUs in the first six months of the year to 40,000 TEUs in July and more than 50,000 TEUs in August to finish the first eight months at 253,000 TEUs, an increase of 350 per cent over the same period last year. Westport has a current annual capacity of one million TEUs.

Westport's terminal operator Kelang Multi Terminal (KMT) said the jump in volumes was mainly attributed to the consistent availability of empty boxes at the port.

KMT executive chairman G Gnanalingam said: "The growth was possible because we are supply-driven. Imports have come down and exports have gone up, but exports cannot leave the country unless there are empty containers to ship these exports out."

"Right now, we have at least 8,000 empty boxes coming in from Bangkok, India and West Asia to cater for these exports," said Mr Gnanalingam.

The number of empties handled at Westport in the first eight months accounted for 20 per cent or 51,000 TEUs, an increase of 180 per cent from last year.

He added that shipping lines have also been re-positioning boxes at Westport in addition to reconfiguring their transhipment routes "because we have the capacity".

Aggressive promotion by Malaysian Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik targeted at postioning Port Klang as the national load centre has also paid off, he said.

"The minister had not only called for shippers to re-direct their cargo shipments from neighbouring ports to Port Klang, but personally visited manufacturers and shippers and encouraged them to use Port Klang," he said.

The number of mainline operators calling at Westport has risen from two in 1996 to the present 10, including Maersk, Sea-Land, Hanjin, Evergreen and Uniglory.

The port's healthy half-time performance has gone against the grain of the dismal performances of the two other terminal operators in Port Klang.

Kelang Container Terminal (KCT), Malaysia's largest container terminal, posted an unexpected 27 per cent decline in volumes in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. In 1997, it handled close to one million TEUs.

Revenues are reported to be down by almost 50 per cent due to lower yields from domestically transhipped boxes to and from Penang port.

Klang Port Container Terminals (KPCT), the container services arm of Klang Port Management (KPM), recorded an 11 per cent fall in total throughput in the first quarter.

But Westport's strong first-half performance may be short-lived in the wake of a proposed merger between KPM and KCT.

Together, KCT and KPCT accounted for a combined container throughput of 1.57 million TEUs out of Port Klang's total annual volume of 1.68 million TEUs, or 93 per cent of the total volumes last year.