Ports Urged To Exploit Potential Increase In Seaborne Trade With AEC

By Harizah Hanim Mohamed KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysian ports, especially Port Klang, have to capitalise on the potential increase in seaborne trade as South-East Asia has become more integrated with the establishment of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by year-end. NCB Holdings Bhd group managing director, Abi Sofian Abdul Hamid, said Port Klang was strategically located to exploit the potential increase in maritime trade as other ports, such as in southern Thailand and Sumatra, were unable to cope with the demand. "The volumes can be railed down to Port Klang. For boxes exported via Penang Port they can be transshipped at Northport to worldwide destinations," he told Bernama. He said Sumatra has 50 million population but has only three ports compared to Malaysia's 29 million population and 10 ports. "There are a lot we can do to assist the infrastructure development and distribute the volume via Port Klang to the world. "Jakarta and Singapore are too far and will cost too much," he said. Locally, he said, all of the resources should be allocated to propel Port Klang to the top 10 busiest ports in the world and at the same time compete with Singapore, which was in the midst of building mega Tuas terminal with 65 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity in 2026. To date, Malaysia's accumulated throughput is 20 million TEUs where half of that are operated at Port Klang and the rest shared among Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Penang Port, Pasir Gudang, Kuantan Port, Bintulu Port, Sepanggar Bay and Senai Port. Asean leaders will converge here on Sunday to take stock of preparations towards the realisation of AEC by end-2015. AEC, destined to promote regional integration, definitely fits the maritime industry's needs as it opens up new business opportunities, boosts intra-regional trade and economic growth all of which would augur well for seaborne trade. -- BERNAMA