Maersk chief executive (Asia) Flemming Ipsen said the first phase of PTP had been substantially taken up and the port, despite being relatively new, had shown its capability in competing against other shipping hubs.

"It is a terminal with high prospects and PTP has been quite competitive so far. What we have to show now is that we can run all the equipment in an efficient and professional manner to compete with existing hubs. This is what the world is looking at,'' Ipsen told Bernama in Singapore yesterday.

Ipsen said PTP had came on stream at the right time now that the Asian crisis was over.

"It is almost ready to operate in three or four months at full scale. It is coming at the right time because the global market is steadily increasing and barring any major catastrophe, the prospects are pretty good,'' he said.

He said Maersk would not have invested in a 30% stake in PTP if it was not convinced of its profitability.

PTP scored a coup when it sealed an agreement with Maersk last week which would see the global shipping giant transferring 85% of its existing throughput from Singapore to PTP by December this year.

Maersk is the biggest customer for Singapore port operator PSA Corp. The move by Maersk is likely to result in a 10% to 12% drop in Singapore port's annual throughput of 15.9 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) recorded last year.

Ipsen said the Maersk presence in PTP would make it easier for the Johor port to persuade its board to further expand its facilities.

He also said it was a difficult decision to move away from Singapore because Maersk had been working with PSA for many years.

"The main driving force (in the shift to PTP) is the cost issue. The savings are quite substantial, otherwise we would not go through an exercise like this,'' Ipsen said.

PTP joins a chain of ports around the world in which Maersk has direct interest.