Although nothing has been finalised, there is a strong possibility that the line’s Straits-Japan service will include PTP in its ports of call, said K Line Maritime (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. managing director Robert Lim Hun Yeong.

“There is a strong possibility one of the two existing services in the Straits-Japan route may call PTP.
I personally am all for calling at the port and am keen to see one loop going there,” he said.

Lim however declined to give details saying only that his principals were holding discussions with port officials.

“They have been talking for quite a few months, since last October but no final decision has been made and the matter is still under study.

Even if the decision is made to call, a leeway of at least one month is needed before our vessels actually start calling PTP.

Most importantly, our existing key customers have to be informed of the change of port and obtaining their consensus will take some time,” he said.

Pointing out PTP’s advantages, Lim said being a new port, PTP’s equipment would provide a faster vessel turnaround time as equipment downtime was not expected.

He added that a lot of big shippers were concentrated around the southern Johor area. “Where calling at PTP is concerned, the issue is not so much the expeditions turnaround of vessels. The bigger worry is whether the distribution of boxes from the port will be efficient.

Nevertheless, PTP has assured us that this has been looked into and to the extent of even getting their own prime movers to move boxes,” he said.

Lim said if the call of PTP materialised and the port is able to perform up to expectations, it would act as a further inducement for the principals to consider sending its other services, such as the US or Europe services here.

“Calling at PTP will save deviation time as vessels only take three hours upstreamand another three hours downstream whereas steaming time to and from Port Klang takes between 24 to 30 hours, thus allowing ships to save a dy,” he said.

According to Lim, K Line had a market share of about 45% in Johor for the Japan sector, and had one of the best transit times from Johor to Japan of eight days.

The Straits-Japan service has two loops, called the Kanto Service and Kansai Service. Both services call Pasir Gudang while only the Kansai Service calls Port Klang.

The ports of rotation on the Kanto Service are Tokyo-Yokohama-Shimizu-Manila-Jakarta-Singapore-Pasir Gudang-Manila-Tokyo.

For the Kansai Service, the ports of rotation are Yokkaichi-Nagoya-Osaka-Kobe-Manila-Singapore-Port Klang-Pasir Gudang-Manila-Yokkaichi.