PORT Klang's container throughput this year is likely to rise by 8% to 5.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 4.8 million TEUs in 2003 after it reported a 16% year-on-year increase in the first six months, says Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy.

He said Port Klang's expected growth would help boost overall container throughput at all Malaysian ports to 11 million TEUs, about 8% higher than the 10.2 million TEUs last year.

We are confident of achieving the target based on the performance so far. The government will continue to upgrade the port facilities and market them to liners" he said after attending a ceremony to welcome CSCL Europe at Westport in Klang yesterday.

Chan also said Port Klang had secured 20 new services for the first half of this year. He said they included six mainline services and two feeders secured by Westport.CSCL Europe is said to be the world's largest container loadage vessel with a length of 334 metres. It is the second of the five 8,500- TEU vessels built by China Shipping Container Lines Co Ltd (CSCL) this year.

The vessel would serve the Far East-European express line, calling at Westport every Wednesday before making its way to the ports of Felixstowe, Hamburg, Antwerp and Rotterdam. CSCL president Capt Li Kelin said the other three 8,500- TEU vessels would be ready to begin operations by year-end and would also call at Port Klang.

"Our -accomplishments in Malaysia have been in part due to the strong support we have received from various sectors in Malaysia;' he said CSCL is currently one of Westport's top container - customers with 10 vessels, mostly with a capacity of 5;000 TEUs.

Li said CSCL would be launching eight 9,600 TEU vessels at a later stage and they were likely to call at Westport as well. He expected Port Klang to handle an annual throughput of 8.4 million TEUs by 2010, with a large portion of the volume taken by CSCL.

For 2003, CSCL accounted for 200,000 TEUs out of the 4.8 million TEUs handled by Westport. It expects this to double to 400,000 TEUs this year.

The Sun,10 September 2004