| KUALA
LUMPUR: More shipping lines
are expected to switch hubs
to Malaysia within the next
five to 10 years, drawn by Malaysian
ports’ attractive pricing
and capability in handling cargo
volumes.
Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd director
Ruben Emir Gnanalingam told
The Edge Financial Daily that
while Singapore has more shipping
line hubs currently, the island
state had limited capacity and
prices in Malaysia were still
substantially cheaper.
Singapore is also currently
the largest handler of trans-shipment
cargo volume in the Southeast
Asian region, doing 28 million
twenty-foot equivalent units
(TEUs) of the 50 million in
Southeast Asia while Malaysia
does 15 million TEUs. Of the
15 million TEUs, Westports is
aiming for five million TEUs
this year, Ruben said.
Asked if he saw strong competition
from other Southeast Asian countries,
Ruben said that there was little
threat. “The three main
ports for trans-shipment cargo
currently are Westports, the
Port of Tanjung Pelepas and
Singapore. We don’t foresee
any particular new threat and
there are no new ports being
built in the region for some
time yet.”
He added that trans-shipment
cargo volume in the Southeast
Asian region was growing between
10% and 15% a year with an estimated
55 million TEUs in 2008.
“The market is growing
fast and there is a lot of room
for growth, we can all grow
together,” he said.
Earlier, Ruben told reporters
that Westports expected its
new 600-metre berth to be fully
operational by the fourth quarter
of this year.
The berth is part of CT5; a
new container terminal Westports
is constructing as part of its
RM800 million three-year expansion
plan to boost annual capacity
by some 30%. The ports operator
breached the four million TEU
mark in 2007.
He was speaking after the announcement
of Westports’ RM800 million-sukuk
musyarakah medium term notes
programme to finance its RM800
million expansion plan.
The sukuk will be utilised to
refinance Westports’ existing
bank borrowings, to finance
the construction of new container
terminals and acquiring machinery
and equipment. The first issuance,
targeted for mid-March, will
be based on a book build basis.
The Edge Financial
Daily, 22.02.2008
|
