Shipping: PTP hit 2m-TEU target last year
Business Times
PORT of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) breached volume targets for 2001, handling more than 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in its first full year since officially opening, the company said yesterday.
“The 2.05 million TEUs represent an increase of approximately five-fold over year 2000’s 418,000 TEUs,” PTP said in a statement.
Chief executive officer Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said the goal of 2 million TEUs was achieved despite the economic climate.
“Although the shipping and port sector has seen volumes drop, PTP’s exceeding of its targets can be attributed to the increasing local cargo through PTP both from the port free zone area and the local hinterland,” he said.
The company, which operates a container port and logistics complex in the southern state of Johor, also said productivity by the year-end averaged 29 moves per hour per crane.
Mohd Sidik said PTP capacity would increase in 2002, with 10 quay cranes on order due to boost capacity to between 4.5 and five million TEUs per annum.
The port is intent on capturing more business from PSA Corp in Singapore, the world’s second busiest container port, which handled 19.8 million TEUs last year.
It is chasing other shipping companies for transhipment business in addition to its existing major client and part-owner, Denmark’s Maersk Sealand, part of Danish oil and shipping conglomerate A.P. Moeller .
Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, has said it is studying the possibility of moving its transhipment hub from Singapore to PTP. — Reuters