Greener pastures at PTP
Cargonews Asia
The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) is losing a second major account to neighbouring Malaysian port Tanjung Pelepas (PTP).
Evergreen Marine of Taiwan has given notice to the PSA that it will be moving its operations to PTP in September 2002, when its five-year contract with PSA expires. The move will begin this month, however, with a gradual reduction of calls at PSA, according to Malaysian port sources.
The main motivation for Evergreen is cost, said Arnold Wang, executive vice-president of Evergreen Marine's project division: "We had discussed tariff issues with the PSA for some time, but finally our operations staff were able to get a better deal from PTP. For us, the main benefit in moving will be reduced costs."
Evergreen's departure follows that of Maersk Sealand, which quit PSA in favour of PTP in December 2000. Wang implied that Evergreen had studied the Maersk move and said PTP had met the "required standard" in its dealings with Maersk.
At PSA, an official who asked not to be identified said the PSA had no comment for the time being. "We're looking into the matter," he said.
There has been market talk in the past month that a second major account at
PSA would shift to PTP following Maersk Sealand's departure last year. Maersk's move cost 12 percent, or 1.8 million TEUs, of Singapore's annual container throughput.
According to Wang, Evergreen moves 450,000 TEUs through PSA each year. PTP, however, is said to be expecting an additional 1.2 million TEUs in throughput as a result of the Evergreen shift.
A PTP spokesman refused to comment on the Evergreen move.