The three-year-old Johor port had drawn back a lot of Malaysian cargo that was previously shipped through Singapore, he said, and it is set to raise its profile in a RM1.2 billion (S$553 million) expansion plan to add eight container berths to the current six.

 

Two of the eight berths are slated to be operational by early next year.
The bulk of the container transhipment business in PTP now comes from Danish giant Maersk Sealand and Taiwan's No. 1 shipping line, Evergreen Marine.

 

Both Maersk and Evergreen were lured to PTP from Singapore.

 

According to economist Azrul Azwar of MIDF-Sisma Securities, PTP may have two advantages over Singapore in attracting customers - lower costs and a huge landbank at the tip of south-west Johor.

 

He said: 'PTP has the edge on price-competitiveness and in its big land area compared to limitations faced by Singapore.'

 

PTP, which has the capacity to take on about 4.5 million TEUs, handled 2.66 million TEUs last year.

 

Today, it is part of an ambitious government plan to turn southern Johor into a regional cargo hub along with Senai airport