AS the economy shifts to a lower gear, it may be the right time for the local port industry to focus on improving infrastructure and raising efficiency levels.

This will enable port operators to provide cost-effective services to customers in the near term while ensuring that when the world trade picks up, they are able to seize the opportunities in the longer term.

In recent years, major ports in Malaysia have utilised almost full capacity to cater to the booming business, which in turn has prompted them to embark on major expansions.

According to Malaysia’s Maritime Institute senior fellow Nazery Khalid, it is crucial for local ports to continually improve their infrastructure, efficiency, productivity and performance to offer customers value for money, especially in this climate that is proving to be extremely challenging for the shipping industry.

“Unlike Westports, Northport and Port of Tanjung Pelepas, which are on par with the world’s best container ports, there are some other local ports that can improve their services.

“The other local ports must benchmark themselves against regional heavyweights like the Singapore Port, Shanghai Port and Hong Kong Port which are among the world’s top five container ports in terms of volume.

“Malaysian ports can certainly improve on many fronts to enhance their competitiveness to attract more main-line operators (shipping companies) to call at their terminals,” he adds.

He suggests that port operators thoroughly assess their current positions and chart their next course of action to weather the global economic downturn.

“Amid the economic and seaborne trade slowdown, port operators must plan their resources meticulously and find ways to harness their strengths to place themselves on a stronger platform.

“Now is the time to identify areas of weaknesses which they may have overlooked during busier times,” Nazery says.

As the most cost-efficient mode of trade transport, where 90% of goods are transported via sea, the shipping industry is vulnerable to any slowdown in the world economies against a backdrop of declining trade volume.

On the flip side, it is also well positioned to benefit from the up-tick in economic activity.

By SHARIDAN M.ALI

PETALING JAYA: Three major ports in Malaysia are confident they will meet their volume targets this year but are bracing for slower growth next year due to the global economic downturn.

Ports that have been recording substantial growth over the years have not been spared the whiplash from the global economic crisis.

Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader

Northport (M) Bhd managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader told StarBiz the port would be able to achieve its volume target of slightly less than three million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) this year, up 4.9% from 2.86 million TEUs recorded last year.

“This is because we had done well in the first half of this year but the last quarter is a little bit slow,” he told reporters after delivering a talk the Selangor Freight Forwarders and Logistics Association in Port Klang recently.

Northport’s November volume stood at 261,251 TEUs, down 7.3% against the same month last year.

Going forward, Basheer said Northport would be very concerned about the country’s economy as it depended a lot on trade.

“If Malaysian trade is affected, of course it will have some impact on our business. But with low gearing of almost 0%, we are quite robust to withstand the onslaught,” he said, adding that Northport had survived the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98.

He added that Northport would continue to operate prudently and would look into postponing taking on less important costs, such as advertising, next year.

Echoing a similar oulook, Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd will not be expecting the usual double-digit volume growth next year that it had been enjoying previously.

But the port is still expecting to post a 16.3% volume growth to five million TEUs this year.

Ruben Emir Gnanalingam

For the month of November, Westports still recorded a growth of 5.4% to 390,000 TEUs against November last year.

Executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the port industry would see some decline in volume next year.

“Looking at the current global economy and its prospects going forward into 2009, it will take a long time to recover, maybe until 2010,” he told StarBiz.

Malaysia’s leading transhipment terminal operator, Port of Tanjung Pelepas Sdn Bhd (PTP), is also on track to meet its volume target of 5.8 million TEUs this year, an increase of 6.2% against last year, although it has felt a slight volume contraction in the last quarter of this year.

PTP recorded a decrease of 2.5% to 449,000 TEUs in November compared to the same month last year.

The port expects to achieve commendable growth next although it has acknowledged that it would not be as robust as in previous years.

Alan Tan

Transways Logistics (M) Sdn Bhd, a logistics provider in Port Klang, expects the volume of exports to decrease further after the first quarter of next year.

Its managing director Alan Tan told StarBiz that based on the current situation where furniture and food exporters were facing shrinking demand, the export volume at Port Klang was expected to fall between 20% and 30% next year, especially after the first quarter.

“But local logistics companies such as Transways are currently experiencing a surge in demand from multinationals as they open more tenders to other players which ignite competitive pricing rather than depending on one or two logistics providers.

“This is in tandem with the cost cutting measures of the multinationals in this gloomy economy.

“Warehouse business is also doing well to store commodities that are currently having price downtrend such as scrap metal,” he said.

By SHARIDAN M. ALI

The terminal operator achieved a speed of 665 moves per hour in the first hour of operations and moved 4,427 TEUs within 10 hours

TERMINAL operator Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd said its operations team has set two new world records for productivity on November 17, despite heavy rain and wet conditions.

The first record was achieved with a speed of 665 moves per hour in the first hour of operations, breaking the previous record of 456 moves in June 2006.

In a statement issued last week, Westports said it was able to do this by using nine twin-lift cranes in the first hour of operations. These cranes are able to lift two containers simultaneously.

The second record entailed vessel productivity by moving 4,427 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) within 10 hours.

The operations were on French-based CMA CGM’s vessel called ORFEO that can carry a total of 9,700 TEUs and operates the French Asia Line 4 (FAL 4) service, the latest service in the FAL network linking Asia and Europe.

Seventeen quay crane operators who worked on two shifts, as the vessel arrived at 0400 hours and departed at 1330 hours, were the “centre-forwards” of the record high scoring team.

The 17 are now listed among the best quay crane operators in the world.

They are Badrul Hisham Tajuddin, Mazidin Hanif, Ramis Krishnasamy, Syed Hidir Syed Mohd Ali, Mohd Soni Soron, Khamaly Jasmin, Saravanan Kuppusamy, Mohd Romzi Hasan, Muniandy Perumal, Chandra Mohan Maninayagam, Bond Ganson, Ibrahim Samsudin, Mohd Shariff Bajuri, Hamidi Toha, Jamaly Synie, Khairul Nizam Awang and Sargunan Selvam.

With the latest achievements, Westports now stands among the top five ports in the world in terms of productivity.

“At Westports, investing in people is a highly regarded talent management framework that helps the port to improve performance and employee productivity through the effective management and development of people.

“Our operations staff are constantly required to acquire skills to be responsive to constant changes and constant quickening of the pace,” said Westports executive director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam.

He said the most important movement in the chain of ship to shore productivity lies in the speed of the quay cranes. The process of hoisting containers on and off the vessels is a skill, which has been honed into a craft.

Westports’ latest acquisition of new super post-Panamax quay cranes is part of on-going efforts to have the latest state-of-the-art resources to meet customers’ needs now and into the future, he added.

“Additionally, the port’s move to introduce several measures to maintain employees’ morale and productivity following the fuel price increase in June such as improved staff incentive scheme, higher allowances as well as salary increment and introduction of G-Mart store for cash-less shopping seems to be paying-off, judging by these two world records. It is undoubtedly our employees’ response to the company’s goodwill towards them,” Ruben said.

By : btimes.com.my