The Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) has set a new throughput record by handling 4,020,421 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) in 2004, an increase of 15.2 per cent from the 2003 figure of 3,487,320 TEUs.

Local cargo, which represented 4.17 per cent handled by Malaysia’s number one container terminal last year, increased by 12 per cent to 168,000 TEUs from 150,000 TEUs in 2003.

Vessel calls rose by 1.3 per cent, with 3,193 vessels calling at the port in 2004 compared with 3,148 in 2003.

PTP also recorded average mainline productivity figures of 34.62 gross moves per hour last year, and currently holds the world gross berth productivity record of 340 gross berth moves per hour, which was set in May 2004 on the vessel AP Moller.

More than 4,000 containers were shifted in less than 13 hours, with peak production hitting 480 moves per hour.

PTP chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman described 2004 as a spectacular year for the port.

“Last year was a spectacular year for PTP. We handled more than four million TEUs; we broke the world berth productivity record; the Free Zone became a hive of activity with many new world-class tenants; and, for the first time, a Malaysian port was named ‘Container Terminal of the Year’,” he said in a statement released in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Last year also saw the completion of the first two berths of PTP’s second-phase development programme. These new berths, which have a water depth alongside the quays of 19 metres, are designed to accommodate future-generation container vessels up to 250,000 tonnes displacement.