JOHOR BAHARU, March 5 (Bernama) -- Fast-growing Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) will be able to cater to more big container lines with the arrival of new equipment in the third quarter of the year to boost the handling capacity of the port, said its chief executive officer, Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman.

The port, which turns one-year-old this month, had already scored a first when it attracted Maersk Sealand, the world's biggest container shipper, to transfer its long-established transhipment hub from Singapore to PTP last December and take up a 30 per cent stake in the port.

"Once we get more machines in the third quarter, they will increase the capacity of the port by 30 percent," he told Bernama.

He said the port, strategiclly located on the southern tip of Malaysia, would not be able to handle very large increase of traffic unless it acquired more equipment.--BERNAMA