Malaysia's Tanjung Pelepas Port Volume Up 30% In 2002
Dow Jones
KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Malaysia's southern Port of Tanjung Pelepas, touted as a rival to neighboring Singapore, said Thursday its container throughput rose 30% on-year in 2002 to 2.66 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containers.
The port had forecast 2002 throughput at 2.5 million TEUs, PTP said in a statement. PTP expects growth for 2003 to be another 30% from 2002's volume.
Nevertheless, PTP is dwarfed by Singapore, which in 2001 handled 19.1 million TEUs. About 95% of PTP's 2002 volume was for containers transported from one country to another, while the rest was local exports and imports, the port said.
The strong growth in volume was attributed to better productivity and to Taiwanese shipping line Evergreen Marine Corp.'s (Q.EM) relocation of its regional hub to PTP from Singapore in late August, the port said.
PTP expects to handle about 6 million TEUs a year by early 2004. Located at the southernmost tip of west Malaysia, PTP is just across a narrow straits from Singapore.
The port was acquired by diversified Malaysia Mining Corp. (P.MNN) this year but has yet to turn a profit due to huge investments needed to expand its infrastructure and facilities.