PTP 2009 box traffic to buck the trend

JOHOR BAHRU, June 15 (GCTL) - Whilst most ports in the region are expecting to their container throughput volumes to dip this year, Malaysia’s leading container terminal, the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), which recently linked a deal with French liner CMA CGM (CAM), expects to handle 6.1 million TEUs this year, up 9 percent from the 5.6 million TEUs handled in 2008.

Under the deal, PTP will handle some of CMA CGM's regional transshipment cargo as CMA vessels haved already started calling at PTP as a result of the “Vessel Sharing Agreement” (VSA) partnership between CMA and Danish liner, Maersk Line.

When asked by BERNAMA about PTP luring CMA from another Malaysian port i.e. Port Klang’s Westport, PTP Chairman Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman clarified that due to strategic reasons, CMA had decided to have two hubs in this region, which effectively meant that CMA would still continue transshipping its regional transshipment cargo at Westport as well.

“For now, the joint services under CMA and Maersk’s VSA would contribute to approximately half a million TEUs of PTP’s total annual throughput. Naturally, we expect to see an increase in the volumes from these services as the economy recovers and world trade picks up again”, Sidik said. PTP currently has terminal handling capacity of eight million TEUs, whch will increase to 12 million TEUs within the next five years under the port's development plans.