Malaysia’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas has been granted a loan from a government bank as part of its M$1.3bn (US$345m) expansion plan, the company said yesterday, Bloomberg reports.

Tanjung Pelepas has borrowed M$741m over 15 years from Bank Pembangunan & Infrastruktur, chief executive Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman said in a speech in Kuala Lumpr.

As a result, the port’s expanded capacity has the potential to handle as many as 10% more containers this year compared with last year, he added.

“We will continue to promote Pelepas as a regional hub and attract more main liners and individual services to Pelepas and create a dynamic regional distribution and consolidation centre for logistics,” he said. 

Tanjung Pelepas, 50% owned by MMC Corp, has eight container berths of 360 metres. The port handled 2.08m containers in the first half, 3.4% more than last year. Container traffic is likely to increase to a record this year, helped by lower rates and Asia’s growing trade with the US and Europe. 

The port reported record traffic of 4.02m boxes last year after volume grew 15%. 

The port, which has grown as a rival to box-moving giant Singapore, is building two more berths for completion in mid-2006 and ordering quay cranes and load movers, Mohd Sidik said.

Bank Pembangunan’s loan is the third granted to Tanjung Pelepas, raising the total amount to M$1.89bn.