PTP reports five-fold liftings surge
Fairplay Shipping
THE Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), Malaysia’s rising container transhipment hub, has exceeded its target for 2001 despite container volumes being hit by the economic downturn.
PTP, which has only completed its second full year of operation, hit the headlines last year when it lured giant operator Maersk from neighbouring Singapore with an equity offer. Maersk boxes have played a prominent part in the rise of PTP with container throughput for 2001 rising five-fold to 2.05M TEU from just 418,000 TEU in the year 2000. While acknowledging that “a significant portion of the year 2001 volumes comes from Maersk Sealand,” PTP CEO Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman, however, pointed out that local cargoes were also playing an important role. The arrival of ten quay cranes in the New Year will boost PTP’s annual capacity to 5M TEU and the port expects to handle more containers once its rail network becomes operational this year.