The Port of Tanjung Pelepas’ (PTP) three new yard blocks, expected to be fully completed in August, would boost capacity by 40% to 154,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at any one time.

The port operator said on April 6 that Phase II of the development programme was on schedule. The first four rows of container yard blocks 10,11 and 12 are expected to be completed in mid-April.

PTP said the new container yards would provide improved loading capacity and allow containers to be stacked six high.

Its support facility construction would be completed by end-April with a brand new 22 kilovolt ampere (kVA) substation to provide power for the 82-tonne super post panamax gantry cranes.
The cranes, with a handling capacity of 40 feet container twin lifts, would be operational in the fourth quarter this year.

“In addition, the new wharf office No 4 had also been completed and handed over to its new tenant for fitting out,” it said.

Work on the basic infrastructure for Free Zone Distribution Park B had started, including the construction of road, drainage, utilities and power substations. This infrastructure was expected to be completed in the next 13 months.

The Phase II development programme began in 2003 with the reclamation of land for an additional eight berths offering a water frontage of 2.88km.

The new Phase II berths development is capable of accommodating ships of up to 250,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt).

With draughts alongside the new Phase II berths of up to 19m, the PTP would be able to handle the latest planned generation containerships of up to 12,000 TEU.

“These berths also provide unique design features geared towards handling the mega vessel, which include the ability to accommodate future gantry cranes that will have a rail spacing of 45m -- an increase on the maximum of 30.5m used currently,” it said