NST, July 1st, 2002 -Westport has won yet another service that will widen its connectivity to worldwide ports.

The ASA consortium members comprising Lloyd Triestino, Regional Container Line and Hajin Shipping has picked Westport as the port of call in the Australia-South-East Asia Service route.

"The inauguration of the service marks a significant development for our outreach as the service will be the first direct service from Westport to Australian market," Westport general manager for business development Hans Troelsen said.

The service started with the maiden call of MV Champion on June 21, this year.

The 1,800- TEU ( twenty-foot equivalent units) capacity vessel handled 500 moves at Westport in its first voyage and sailed to Singapore enroute to Brisbane.

The country manager for Lloyd Triestino Richard Tan expressed confidence the fast and reliable connectivity at major ports in Australia will benefit Malaysia traders and cargo owners.

"Although we have been in the Australian trade for quite some time, this is the first time we have started direct services to Port Klang. The phase-in of bigger capacity carrier in the Australia-South-East Asia trade route allows us to include Port Klang in the direct service." Richard said.

The service offers extremely fast transit time of 11 days to Brisbane , Sydney (14 days), Melbourne (17 days). In the return leg the service connects Westport and Melbourne in record time of 11 days.

Richard said the current utilization level of the four ships in the trade were about 90 per cent.

"The member lines are confident that transhipment volume bound to Australian market from Port Klang will pick up and justify our inclusion of Westport in our service schedule," he said.

Lloyd Triestino as a member of Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corporation Group (EMC) which is one of the largest customers for Westport.

"We also privileged to note that the EMC group has recently made further major commitments to the port industry in Malaysia through her plans to develop South-East Asia regional transhipment hub in Malaysia," Richard said.

Meanwhile, Hans said timing of the commencement of ASA service was ideal.

Westport, he said, has just completed the commissioning of the new gantry cranes, bringing the total number to 15 from original nine made available in 1996 when operations commenced. A further three units will be in place by the end of this year.