WESTPORT, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has achieved a great deal and has helped propel Port Klang to become one of the world's best.
In addition, Westport has proved itself to be a good corporate citizen and has made an enormous contribution to the country through community programmes and by providing employment to thousands of Malaysians.
Spanning 480ha on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Westport constitutes one half of Malaysia's premier port of Port Klang. The other half is made out of Northport, operated by Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, a multipurpose port offering 5km of quayline.
Westport, operated by Kelang Multi Terminal Sdn Bhd (KMT), is the newer of the two terminal facilities. Last year it handled 2.3 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) and is ranked as one of the largest container ports in the region.Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam , KMT's executive chairman, said he was satisfied with the progress Westport has made.
"I am proud of our achievements as we have been able to meet the needs of our customers/shipping lines. Not only that, the shipping lines that use Westport grew along with the port."For instance, China Shipping Container Lines' (CSCL) container traffic through Westport grew from a petite 12,000 TEUs to today's 350,000 TEUs, while that of Evergreen Marine grew from 100,000 TEUs to 250,000 TEUs," he said.
To date, 35 shipping lines call on Westport. Of this total, CMA CGM, Hanjin Shipping, Evergreen Marine, Norasia, Gold Star, CSCL and Gemartrans are the seven major carriers which have largely fostered the growth of the port. These carriers handled in access of l.7 million TEUs, or close to 75 percent of Westport's container traffic in 2003.
Gnanalingam said another big achievement for the port was that it had the capability and capacity to meet the country's needs as the 17th largest trading nation in the world. "In terms of productivity, we have registered a record gross crane productivity of 30 moves per hour, which is higher than the industry average of 25 crane moves per hour. Compare this with 10 years ago, Malaysian ports were generally doing 15 moves per hour per crane. This shows that Malaysians can do it.
"Our goal now is to increase productivity to 35 moves per hour per crane," he said. Apart from high productivity, Westport is also attractive to shipping lines because of its low rates.
"This has enabled Malaysia to remain competitive among world ports, while providing top productivity. Who else can ask for more?" he said. Providing employment with competitive salaries and fringe benefits to qualified, dependable, and dedicated Malaysians is yet another achievement for the port.
He said Westport was founded on the belief that its employees had a direct impact on the port's bottom line and productivity. "We recognized that for us to attract and retain a continuous pool of skilled people, we have to offer higher wages and fringe benefits. And while we understand that training staff can be expensive, it is a well known fact that on-going education and training of staff are critical to achieve the productivity levels that we have achieved today," he said.
So it is not surprising to see the minimum wage in Westport is RM1,200 per month, with overtime pay and benefits such as housing loans, computer loans and motor vehicle loans. Its recipe has worked well so far. The port's average turnover rate of 25 per cent during the first five years of operations has dropped to five per cent today. Creating a conducive environment for its employees to work in is also critical.
When Westport was established, it was difficult to attract good workers because ports were often seen as unglamorous, dull, dreary and dirty. "However, we have since changed the image of ports with our extensive and imaginative landscaping and having high productivity standards," he said. Indeed, Westport was awarded second place for the best landscaped structure/ building in Malaysia last year. The National Landscaping Council on behalf of the Government awarded this award to Westport. This award is to recognize organizations in Malaysia for beautifying and landscaping their premises.
And this is just one of the many feathers in its cap.Still, Westport's ascendancy is no overnight feat. He pinned the opposition by boldly pushing the most dramatic changes at any port. Those changes helped Westport become one of the region's leading ports. And by paying far greater attention to employee demands for better working environment, Westport also gained the best marks from its own staff as an employer of choice. From 20 employees in 1994, the port now employs 2,000 people, many of whom live in the nearby Pulau Indah village. The average age of its employee is 30.
He said he was also proud of Westport's commitment and contribution to community. He said right from the day it was born, Westport had adopted Pulau Indah as its community project. Its aim is to elevate the quality of life for the villagers and upgrade the development of Pulau Indah. "To date our contribution has gone into infrastructure developments such as sports, recreational, educational facilities, community programmes and religious activities.
"Some of our most notable projects are the building of the KEMAS kindergarten where we contributed in terms of landscaping, storerooms, archway, playground and the carpark. About 60 children are attached with the kindergarten," he said. Since education is the key to knowledge, the port has also upgraded the state library at Pulau Indah and supplied books and encyclopedias.
Westport has also helped build a computer lab and contributed 11 computers to Sekolah Kebangsaan Pulau Indah. Sports facilities such as volleyball, sepak takraw-cum-netball courts were built recently. Westport continually makes contribution to Pulau Indah Community Welfare Fund every year. Westport operates seven container berths with a total length of 2km capable of accommodating five mother ships and three small ships.
"We have the potential to increase this quayline to 5.6km over the next 10 years," he said. Movement of containers at Westport, has registered a rise in the first six months of this year when it handled 1.26 million TEUs. Transhipment traffic made up more than 60 per cent of the container traffic handled at the port. Westport attributed its 10.5 per cent growth to additional and new services, high productivity and vessel turnaround time.
Nineteen new services started in the first half of this year. China Shipping Container Lines has added three new service. CMA CGM, Norasia, Goldstar, United Arab Shipping Co, Lloyds Triestino, Regional Container Line, OOCL, MSC and Johan Shipping so mounted additional, services during the January-June period. He expressed optimism that during that during remaining six months of this year, the port would be able to meet the container handling target of 2.6 million TEUs, perhaps even 2.8 million TEUs. The port aims to surpass the 5 million TEU mark by 2008.
To keep up with growth trends, the terminal operator is moving ahead with a 6OOm berth extension to the container terminal and 24ha of yard, which are scheduled for completion by March. And to beef up its landside operation, the port is acquiring four twin-lift quay cranes and eight rubber-tyred gantry cranes together with 25 prime movers. Together they'll cost some RM300 million. The money isn't a problem, given Westport's healthy profits. Last year, its net profit was RM90 million on revenue of RM440 million.
He projects that the port's revenue will increase to RM500 million this bar. Apart from its container operations, Westport is also an important ort where conventional business is concerned. In fact, it started off with conventional business.
The volume of conventional general cargo handled last year was 9.5 million tonnes. Of this total, three million tonnes were break bulk cargo, 3.5 million dry bulk cargo and three million tonnes liquid bulk cargo.
Westport has three liquid bulk berths with a total length of 818m, three dry bulk berths of 800m and four break bulk Berths of 800m. Asked if Westport is drawing up plans for the expansion of its conventional general cargo facilities, he said: "We do not foresee any need for expansion in these facilities because we see a greater movement on all types of cargo into containers. For example, a lot of dry bulk cargo today is going into containers.
In Malaysia, 65 per cent of cargo are containerized through ports against the international levels of around 80 per cent.
Looking ahead he said he hoped to work with the new Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy and the new Port Klang Authority chairman Datuk Yap Pian Hon to develop Port Klang into a world-class port city. "It is pleasing to know that they have a good grasp of the port industry's' needs and the national objectives," he added.
The NST , 10 September 2004 |
