PTP chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said phase two of the port development project actually began in November 2002 although it was scheduled to start this year. “It began well ahead of our original schedule due to the rapid growth of the port’s operations.
 
“With the development of the second phase, we will continue to promote PTP as regional hub and attract more main liners and individual services to PTP,’ chief executive officer Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said, after the signing of a 15 year US$190.97 million loan agreement between the port and Bank Pembangunan Dan Infrastruktur Malaysia recently. A total of $335 million is required for phase two of the port’s development.
 
The $190.97 million loan will be used to develop berths given seven to 10, inclusive of the design, construction, equipment and other port operating facilities.
 
“So far, berths seven and eight and a few rows of a container yard have been completed. The loan will also be used to build wharf structures for berths nine and 10 infrastructure for Distripark Phase B, namely roads, utilities and power substations. Work on all these have just commenced and is expected to be completed by the middle of next year,” Mohd Sidik said.
 
PTP has undergone one of the fastest container volumes increase in the world; 2004 was another record-breaking year with PTP achieving a 14.8 percent growth to 4.02 million TEUs, up from 3.5 million TEUs in the previous year. It has established itself as Malaysia’s number one container terminal for three years in a row.
 
Mohd Sidik said while PTP remains on track to achieve a five percent growth in total container throughput by the end of this year, higher oil prices would offset that increase and as a result, earnings would be flat.
 
He said the port consumes a large amount of fuel each year for equipment such as cranes, trucks and cargo containers. Nevertheless, Mohd Sidik said he is confident of PTP achieving profit for the financial year ending December 31, 2005, but expects its net profit to remain even with last year.
 
He said the recent de-pegging of the ringgit had no impact on the port since all of its charges and borrowings are conducted in ringgit except when it comes to importing some equipment.
 
PTP’s current handling capacity profile consists of berths one to eight, 360m each in length; 24 quay cranes, with an additional three to be delivered by the end of 2005; a 110,000 TEUs container yard with an additional yard space on stream in July 2005. PTP’s current annual handling capacity is six million TEUs.
 
Paul argues that the shipping boom has resulted in lines looking beyond quick cost gains and concentrating, instead, on overall efficiency gains and analyzing how ports can cater towards their growth.
 
“This is our strength,” he claims. “Indeed, there is no other port in the region where 100 percent of the berths and cranes can cater to the 8,000-9,000 TEU vessels. Aside from this, our phase two has been designed for even larger vessels.
 
“At PTP, what we are offering is the future”.