WHEN Westport Malaysia was incorporated in 1994, many were sceptical of how successful it would it be.

Located on Pulau Indah, a remote island off the coast of Selangor, it was dubbed as being far away from "civilisation".

Nevertheless, armed with sheer determination, untiring effort and quality service, the port has turned out to be a national success.

Since then, the number of vessels and the volume has grown.

Ten years later, Westport is a popular international port of choice.

It currently handles about 22 per cent of the total container volume in the country and almost half the total container throughput volume of Port Klang's cargo flow is via Westport.

As quoted by many, the drive be hind the growth of the port is Tan Sri. Gnanalingam.

He made it possible for the port to achieve 2.56 million TEUs within a decade.

Westport's conventional volume growth for 2004 is 8.5 million tonnes.

As a port that places speed and improvement as its priority, it has moved from a modest port to a designer port with top-notch IT systems, and a port that is famed for its infrastructure.

Business is booming at this transshipment hub, which also benefits from the development in global trade.

As a result, to cater to its continued growth, expansion has become inevitable for Westport.

The port's container terminal has a wharf length of 2,000m and construction of its latest container terminal, CT4, is in progress.

Upon completion, CT4 will offer a wharf length of 600m and 36ha of space.

Total storage capacity after expansion will rise to 800,000 TEUs, increasing the handling capacity to 3.8 million TEUs a year.

The expansion will meet the demand for shipping services owing to the trade boom between the East and West.

The increased number of services that is being launched at Westport reflects this scenario.

In addition, the port's efficiency and consistency in maintaining its productivity above Fastport standards has earned it praise and confidence of major shipping lines.

To promote its terminal-handling capabilities, the port is also expanding its fleet of equipment.

Among these are the acquiring of four new Super Post Panamax cranes with twinlift spreaders that have a maximum load capacity of 60 tonnes, outreach of 22 containers and hoisting speed of 160m per minute.

It will also acquire 12 Rubber Tyre Gantries and 25 Prime Movers.

The demand and the availability of electricity supply are two factors to be considered, as far as power requirement is concerned.

The power distribution system from Tenaga Nasional Berhad is sufficient for the operational requirement from the LBT to the CT3.

Thus, a bigger power intake is needed to cater to future demand, hence the construction of a 33kV 60MVA substation.

Upon completion at the end of April, the substation will not only be able to meet the power requirement of the current terminals (LBT to CT3) and six additional terminals of 600m each (CT4 to CT9), but also with the new reticulation, the availability of supply will improve.

A jetty will also be erected to serve as a base for Westport's tugboats and pilot boats to complement the new terminals. To ensure the fast berthing of vessels. Westport set up its own tugboats and pilotage in 2000.

There are currently 26 pilots to handle vessels of any kind, five tugboats of maximum bollard pulls of 40 tons and three pilot boats.

With the inception of its own pilotage and tugboats, the waiting time of vessels has dropped.

Other developments are at the Container Terminal Gate.

To ensure smoother traffic flow, four lanes with two lanes equipped with weighbridges are due to open by the third quarter of the year. There are 10 lanes at the Container Terminal Gate.

There are projects to widen the main roads to cater to the increase in hauliers and ease the traffic as a result of the increased volume expected due to the expansion.With the positive economic outlook of the nation, the port's proximity to the above projects and the trade movement spurred by China not only augur well for the expansion of Westport, but are a sign of good times and increased volume that are to roll in with the waves.

The NST, 28.3.2005