Evergreen completes move to PTP with 1mil-TEU shift
The Star
EVERGREEN Marine Corp completed moving approximately one million TEUs from Port of Singapore Authority Corp (PSA) to Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) yesterday.
With the shift, PTP has now become the carrier’s regional hub, handling up to 85% of its volume. With the additional tonnage, the port is poised to handle three million boxes by next year.
Since Aug 24, Evergreen started phasing in its services to PTP, and within a week, three major services are calling at the port.
These include the East and West bound China-Europe-Mediterranean (CEM), the Far East Mediterranean (FEM) and the West Coast-Asia-Europe pendulum service (WAE), adding six weekly mother vessel calls at PTP.
The move was on schedule, following the terminal service agreement between Evergreen and the port that was signed on April 1.
PTP’s chief executive officer Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said the terminal was honoured to serve the shipping line as its regional hub.
“Both PTP and Evergreen will benefit from the close relationship as partners to ensure excellent service levels.
“Our growth has received another unprecedented boost and the port will do all it can to further utilise PTP’s excellent connectivity to attract more common-user, distribution and logistics companies,” he said.
In conjunction with the shift, the owner and Group Chairman of Evergreen Group, Dr. Chang Yung-Fa also visited PTP last week.
The maiden vessel to call the port was the 152-metre Uni-Concord with a capacity of 1,038 TEUs, and is deployed on the Evergreen/Uniglory NSG feeder service.
The calling was witnessed by port officials and Evergreen representatives.
Another vessel, Ever Apex, deployed on the NSB feeder service, arrived on Aug 25.
Both services connect PTP weekly with Taiwan, Hong Kong and other South East Asian ports.
With the shift, only 15% of Evergreen’s regional volume will be handled at PSA, 16 months after Maersk Sealand crossed over.
Fearing another loss, PSA has successfully managed to keep Hanjin at the republic by offering good packages.
PTP also received the first three quay cranes from Shanghai, China, supplied by MMC-ZPMC.
The super post panamax cranes, arrived on board the all-type-bulk vessel, Zheng Hua 1.
The commissioning of the cranes is expected to be completed by the end of the month, with another two cranes scheduled to arrive at PTP by the end of October.
The cranes have a 22-box outreach (60 metres) and twin-lift spreaders, capable of handling two twenty-foot containers at one time.
MMC-ZPMC is a joint-venture company between MMC Engineering & Construction Sdn Bhd (MMCEC) and Shanghai-Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Limited (ZPMC).
PTP signed an agreement for MMC-ZPMC to supply five units of the quaycranes on Dec 3 last year.
With this delivery, PTP now has 22 units of Super Post-Panamax quayside cranes for port operations.
The final batch of two more units of quay cranes will bring the number of quay cranes to 24 units for Phase 1 of PTP, bringing terminal capacity to between four to five million TEUs annually.