Today the Danish giant firmly believes it made the right decision with an average productivity of 30 moves an hour per crane at the Malaysian port, an efficiency level it says is even better than Singapore’s. Pelepas is also its largest hub port in the world.

“After we had passed 2m teu we started to feel vulnerable leaving such a large part of the business with an operation that would not allow us to have a stake,” explains SØren Houman, vice-president of Pacific sales.
Under the deal Maersk terminal division A P MØller Terminals manages operations at the port.

While Maersk made much of being “the master of its own destiny”, cost also played an important part in the container shipping industry in which, Mr Houman says, no one is making money today.

Pelepas is believed to offer rates as much as 50% lower than its rival Singapore.

In future Maersk hopes to use some of the huge space available at PTP to develop its logistics business further with Maersk Logistics already having warehousing there.

Local cargo volume remains small, however, at no more than 5% and possibly lowers.

Despite pressure on feeder operators to stay in Singapore, Maersk says it was able to find virtually all the third party feeder connections required at Pelepas in addition to those provided by its own network from MCC Transport.
“We have not had poorer coverage because we moved to PTP,” Mr Houmen says.

Only notable exception is Borneo, still served from Singapore.

Cynics would comment that PTP’s efficiency with Maersk is not hard to achieve as the Danish line is its only big client and therefore all its operations are geared to ensuring high quality service for the single line.

Maersk, however, firmly believes that other lines such as Evergreen Marine, which move to the port at the end of August, will not see any impact on service quality.

“Nor would Evergreen have accepted it if they were not going to receive a level of service they have seen here (Singapore),” Mr Houman says.

Evergreen’s presence is expected to enhance the port’s attractiveness to feeder operators.

Its decision to move the bulk of its Singapore calls to PTP also fits with the Danish company’s vision of establishing A P MØller Terminals as a fully profitable unit in its own right rather than just serving Maersk.