Tanjung Pelepas raises the bar

PORT of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) is leveraging on world-class productivity to build on last year’s strong performance and enhance its competitiveness against regional ports.

Deputy chief executive officer Azlan Shahrim said PTP was now raising the bar after having met its productivity goal of 35 moves per hour as compared to the industry average of 25 moves per hour.

“Higher productivity, lower operating costs and an increased capacity of 8.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) will enable the port to deliver a higher service level cost-effectively,” Azlan said in an interview with Bernama.

PTP, the country’s largest container port and the fastest growing in South-East Asia, is situated at the mouth of Pulai River, to the west of Johor Baharu.

Azlan said PTP handled six million TEUs last year, which was 7.5% more containers over the previous year.

The increase, he said, was achieved during a difficult year when many ports around the world recorded a drop in volume.

According to Azlan, PTP’s growth last year was the highest among the major ports worldwide. With the global economy recovering this year, PTP was confident of extending its growth trend, he said.

“PTP’s monthly volume in May this year is the highest recorded in the port’s ten-year history,” he added.

However, Azlan cautioned that “the question is sustainability as part of the growth is due to the restocking of inventory, which has depleted considerably from last year’s economic downturn”.

“Shipping lines have also reintroduced capacity into the market, which will exert pressure on freight rates. These factors make us cautious even as we experience recovery,” he said.

PTP’s strategic focus now is to enhance feeder connectivity and increase its mix of local cargo, which will attract more shipping lines to the port, Azlan said.

‘Three of the world’s top four shipping lines are already calling at PTP,” he said, listing Maersk which is ranked number one, CMA-CGM (ranked number three), and Evergreen (ranked number four).

Azlan said the huge vessels calling at PTP offered direct sailing to Europe and the United States without having to first transship cargo at neighbouring ports. “This allows for shorter transit times.

Our exports will reach faraway destinations faster and this efficient supply chain enhances the competitiveness of Malaysian goods,” he said.

Azlan said that PTP’s ample capacity also meant that there was no port congestion which would otherwise had increased cost to port users. “These advantages make PTP well-positioned to be an efficient gateway port for Johor’s local hinterland cargo,” he said.