COMMITTED to cater to the growing demands in the global sea-borne trade, Westport has progressed within a decade into a world-class facility and more significantly as a multi-purpose port in the region.

Living up to its name as a flexiport, Westport has the expertise and facilities to handle containerised and conventional cargo.

It began as a conventional terminal, but has today earned the reputation of being one of the best conventional terminals in terms of performance standards, productivity and total throughput.

With a mission to provide quality service and fast turnaround time, the conventional terminal's rate of discharge supersedes industry standards.

While dry bulk cargo is discharged at an average rate of 100 tonnes per hour elsewhere, the discharge rate at Westport is 600 tonnes per hour. For break bulk cargo, the average industry discharge rate is 100 tonnes per hour. At Westport, discharge rates of 300 tonnes per hour are the norm.

Similarly, at Westport's Liquid Bulk Terminal, liquid cargo is discharged at 400 to 4,000 tonnes per hour as compared with the industry expectation of 200 tonnes per hour.

Westport's vehicle terminal centre, Southeast Asia's most advanced smart car terminal, handled about 104,000 vehicles last year, an increase of 43 per cent over the previous year. Further improvement to this volume is expected in 2004 and beyond, in line with vehicle trade liberalisation under the Asean Free Trade Area Agreement.

These superior productivity levels illustrate Westport's resolve and commitment to achieving optimum productivity. With more cutting-edge equipment and machinery at its disposal and manned by highly skilled planning and operations staff, it is envisaged that productivity levels will continue to improve. Productivity and speed of ship-to-shore quay cranes are the most important measurements in the efficiency of a container terminal. Prior to Westport, the average crane productivity was 16 to 17 moves per hour (mph). The best ports average 25 mph.

Today, with its fleet of super post panamax cranes, meticulous planning and efficient operations, Westport has taken the lead in crane productivity compared with major ports in the world. It has leapt from an average of 22 mph in 2002 to 30-32 mph in 2004 with more than 50 per cent of vessels achieving 35 mph in productivity.

From 20,000 TEUs in 1996, Westport today handles 2.34 million TEUs. This leap is attributed to the confidence of main line operators ( MLOs} in Westport's ability to handle their containers and needs. The growth for 2004 is related the increasing number of MLOs calling at Westport and through more direct services being introduced. This augurs well for larger volumes of container movement.

As a multi-purpose port, Westport plays a significant role as the nation's load centre and a mega transshipment hub.

The ratio of its local boxes to transshipment boxes is 40:60. As at the third quarter of 2004, the volume of local boxes rose by 16 per cent to 711,949 TEUs, from 613,978 TEUs for the same period last year. Through increased productivity, continuous improvement, efficiency and dependability, Westport has established its name in the transshipment business. It has evolved as the preferred port of call among major MLOs.

In addition, its feeder network and the increasing container business on the Asia-Europe route is an important factor for its growth as a leading transshipment hub for the region.

In comparison, Westport's distinct feature lies in its large land bank, which allows it to expand and sustain the expected growth in future container volume as more cargo is containerised. The port is embarking on a wharf and yard expansion to handle more containers, making it even more competitive.

Westport's expansion plans with its constant infrastructure development is ahead of demand, instilling confidence in shipping lines which seek to grow in tandem with the port.

The container and conventional terminals are an integral part of the growth and expansion of Westport. Projected as the region's best multi-terminal and productive one stop hub, Westport is poised to cater to every need of the industry.

NST, December 10 2004