PTP improves efficiency
New Straits Times
The Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Johor has fitted all its 67 rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes with Smartrail, an auto-steering and container verification system, to improve efficiency.
Chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said the new system will help reduce the increasing pressure on terminals which handle a high volume of containers daily.
"With the new system, PTP is able to ensure that the highest productivity standards are met, thus enhancing the status of the port," he said.
Mohd Sidik said PTP handled 2.51 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from January to September this year, and expects to record over 3 million TEUs by year-end.
Smartrail is manufactured by Kalmar Industries. The system is also used by the Dubai Ports Authority.
"Kalmar managed to install the system into the cranes without interrupting the normal workings of the terminal," Mohd Sidik said.
PTP, which is 30 per cent owned by private-owned AP Moller group of Denmark, has two major shipping lines calling at the port: Maersk Sealand and Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp.
PTP has grown rapidly since the two major shipping lines moved from Singapore and made the port their regional hub.
By utilising the differential global positioning system technology, Smartrail is able to steer the RTGs along "invisible" tracks. This relieves the driver of the need to steer, and allows him to travel at maximum speed between lifts and to concentrate fully on picking up and setting down containers.
Kalmar is a provider of heavy-duty materials handling equipment and services to ports, intermodal traffic, terminals and industrial customers.
PTP is expected to be listed as the world's 20 best seaports by year-end as it has achieved remarkable growth and productivity since operational in 2000, Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said on Saturday when tabling Johor's 2004 Budget at the State Legislative Assembly.
With its operational efficiency through information and communications technology, apart from 72 wharf cranes under the first phase, the port's handling of containers is expected to increase to more than 4 million TEUs next year, he said.
"PTP's second phase of development is in progress involving the construction of eight wharves measuring 2.8km and costing RM3 billion," he said.
PTP will have the capacity to handle up to 10 million TEUs a year when the all the facilities are completed.
A distribution, logistics and regional consolidation centre is also being built at the port as a catalyst for the growth of the industry by offering incentive packages to make the port more competitive, he said.