PORT Klang, which comprises Northport and Westport, handled 4.8 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of containers last year, up 6 per cent from 4.53 million TEUs recorded a year earlier.

The figures showed the port meeting Port Klang Authority’s (PKA) target for 2003. PKA had earlier forecast Port Klang to handle 5 million TEUs, but this was later revised downwards to 4.8 million TEUs based on the port’s performance in the first eight months of the year.

PKA general manager Datin Paduka O. C. Phang said of the 4.8 million TEUs, Northport contributed 54 per cent or 2.5 million TEUs and Westport at 52 per cent contributed the balance (2.35 million TEUs).

Westport operator Klang Multi Terminal Sdn Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam said 60 per cent of the total container throughput came from transshipment and the remaining 40 per cent from indigenous cargo. Its container cargo is forecast to increase to 2.6 million TEUs this year, up some 15 to 20 per cent.

Northport (Malaysia) Bhd chief executive officer and managing director Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader, meanwhile, declined to reveal Northport’s figures.

They were speaking at the opening of China Shipping (Malaysia) Agency Sdn Bhd’s new office in Subang Jaya yesterday. It is the agency representing China Shipping Container Lines Co (CSCL) in Malaysia.

Officiating at the opening was Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Douglas Unggah Embas who said CSCL’s decision to shift its South-East Asian transshipment hub from Singapore to Port Klang in April 2000 was another thumbs-up for Port Klang and a recognition of its capacity and capability.

The shipping line made its entry into Malaysia in 1998. Last year, CSCL shipped some 250,000 TEUs out of Westport, making it the port’s third largest customer behind CMA-CGM (Compagnie Maritime D’Affrement-Compagnie Generale Maritime) and Goldstar.

China Shipping (Malaysia) Agency deputy managing director Michael Ong said this year, the shipping line is targeting to handle some 400,000 TEUs to 500,000 TEUs of containerised cargo for Malaysia.

“We hope to do so by doubling the volume of Malaysian exports handled and we also expect regional countries such as Vietnam to bring more cargo into Port Klang to be redistributed to other destinations,” said Ong.

The shipping line also plans to increase the number of services out of Port Klang from the current seven per week to 14 by June this year.

Currently, CSCL operates some 400 ships, ranging in size from 4,100 TEUs to 5,668 TEUs. The shipping line will be adding by June this year 10 new ships of 8,200 TEUs and another 10 new ships of 9,600 TEUs in 2005 or 2006. By the end of 2005, the shipping line’s vessel capacity will be increased to 320,000 TEUs.

“CSCL will become one of the world’s biggest and strongest container carriers by 2010,” said Ong.