SABAH PORTS CONTAINER TERMINAL (SBCP) @ KOTA KINABALU

Sapangar Bay Container Port (SBCP) is strategically located along the busy shipping routes between the Far East and Europe.  Plans are underway to rationalize the port operations statewide through hubbing to create economies of scale.  SBCP, which has taken over the container operations from Kota Kinabalu Port, is positioned as the premier transhipment hub for the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).  A port of international standing, SBCP boasts of state-of-the-art facilities, the ability to handle more container volume, more efficient and effective operations adn greater competitive freight charges.

Features :

Berthing Facilities
• 500 meter long (outer berth) and 400 meter long (inner berth)
• 12 meter water depth alongside
• capability to handle container vessels of up to 45,000 DWT

Storage Facilities
• Back-up area of 22.5 hectares
• A 15 hectares container stacking area
• A 4,500 m2 Container Freight Station
• Maximum annual throughput of 500,000 Teus.

Cargo Handling Facilities
• State-of-the-art handling facilities including Gantry Cranes, Mobile Harbour Cranes, Reach Stackers, Rubber-Tyred Gantries, Straddle Carriers, Empty Container Handlers, Multi Trailers and Terminal Tractors.

NEW CEO AT NORTHPORT

Monday June 25, 2012

Abi Sofian takes on challenge

Northport (M) Bhd CEO Abi Sofian Abdul Hamid is set to prove that he is not just the seasoned operations guy at Northport but also someone who can take care of the dollars and cents, and a be good employer. In his first ever media interview, the port’s new top brass shares with StarBiz reporter Sharidan M. Ali his thoughts, vision and business direction of the company.

PETALING JAYA: Lenggong-born Abi Sofian is not a new face in the port industry especially in Northport where he started his career back in 1991.

He was part of the team led by Northport former managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Basheer Hassan Abdul Kader, which navigated the the merger of Klang Container Terminal (KCT) and Klang Multi Terminal into Northport.

When he was younger, Abi Sofian, 50, did not think that he would end up in the port industry until it was time for him to settle down.

“I came to Port Klang as a civil engineer with an Australian consultancy firm which was involved in the upgrading of facilities at KCT.

Abi Sofian: ‘There are still areas with good potential to be realised. Developing a s trategic human capital is one area.’

“At the end of the project in 1993, I was asked whether I was interested in joining KCT.

“Having spent about two and a half years working literally above water, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to finally settle down at one place and learn more about marine engineering from civil engineering practices,” he said.

Soon after, KCT set up a facilities department to look after all engineering related works other than those involving terminal equipment. “I was re-designated as facilities engineer. My involvement later expanded to include corporate matters such as looking at lease terms on infrastructure, facilities aspects, contracts for civil works and corporate branding. I took my new responsibilities quite seriously and I decided to study law in 1996.”

As Northport was established, Abi Sofian found the issues in the port operations very challenging and exciting.

“I began to interact with other departments especially the business units as they needed my involvement in their capacity planning.

“With further exposures in the port industry like government agencies, regulators, business groups, I supposed I was then embedded in the port industry,” he said.

Northport, which is owned by NCB Holdings Bhd, appointed Abi Sofian CEO in April. “I was totally surprised when I was offered the job. I did not have the slightest idea that the person would be me.”

Rather than feeling pleased, he considers the job a challenge.

“I intend to take the port to greater heights by continuing what Datuk Basheer had left behind and introduce some new things to further improve the operations,” he said.

The affable and ever-smiling Abi Sofian said years of involvement in the operations of the terminal was an advantage. He can now focus on sharpening his skills in corporate and financial aspects.

According to Abi Sofian, Basheer placed a good working structure in defining the business profiles of Northport as well as the harmonious working relationship between employees and management team.

This conducive environment would be retained, he said.

“In spite of this, I believed there are still areas with good potential to be realised. Developing a strategic human capital is one area.

“I believe a fully developed employee will not only able to positively contribute to the company but the nation as well.

“I am also a true believer in key performance index but we have to spend some time to come out with the right and realistic target and benchmarks.

“Of course as a trained engineer, I subscribe to the importance of systems and processes as well,” he said.

Focusing on the port business, Abi Sofian is an ardent believer in bottom line performance.

“Although I admit that the volume growth is important, we do not deliver the containers to the shareholders, we deliver profit,” he said adding that Northport was targeteting to handle 3.2 to 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) this year from about 3.11 million TEUs in 2011.

Abi Sofian said the port would continue to improve its revenue but it would also be looking at cost management to continue get better margins.

“And as a service provider we also must not forget about the quality of service. In a nutshell, all these criteria are the keys to business sustainability,” he said adding that high value boxes also bring better margins to the port.

To a question about whether Northport had been conservative in its annual volume target, Abi Sofian said it was just being realistic. “As the main gateway of import and export, our volume growth is in line with the gross domestic product growth.”

“As of last year, 60% of our volume were import and export boxes while the remainder were transshipments Again, the most important matter is the profit per box that we can achieved rather than how many boxes we can do,” he said.

Good Port Performance in Malaysia

Malaysia container throughput edges up in Q1

Malaysian ports recorded an increase in container throughput of 6.5 percent to 5.1 million TEUs in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, said Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha.

In a statement, he said Port Klang was the top container port in the period (January-March 2012) with a throughput of 2.46 million TEUs compared with 2.26 million TEUs in the same period in 2011, an increase of 9.1 per cent, reported Bernama Daily.

In addition, Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) managed a throughput of 1.88 million TEUs for the first quarter against 1.79 million TEUs in the same period a year ago.

Kong said all ports in Malaysia experienced positive growth of between one per cent and 24 per cent, with the exception of Johor Port, Kuantan Port and Miri Port, which declined by 8.9 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively.

The drop in Johor Port's container throughput was due to a 30 per cent decrease in container transhipment to the port compared with the same period last year.

As for Kuantan Port, the decline was due to empty containers as a result of lower import and export trade.

PENANG PORT

Monday January 23, 2012

Penang Port sees slow 2012

By DAVID TAN
davidtan@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: Penang Port Sdn Bhd is targeting for the container cargo handled at its North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) to hit 1.278 million 20-ft equivalent units (TEUs) this year, an increase of about 7.4% from last year.

Penang Port chief operating officer Obaid Mansor told StarBiz that 2012 was expected to be a slower year due to the bleak global economic outlook.

“We expect a slower growth of 7.4% compared with 8.4% in 2011. Although the China market is slowing down, we can still rely on intra-Asian trade among large economies such as Indonesia and India for growth.

“Thus, for the first quarter 2012, we expect the volume of container cargo handled at NBCT to grow about 4% over last year’s corresponding period, which handled 278,161 TEUs,” he said.

In 2009, at the peak of the US subprime crisis, the volume of container cargo handled at NBCT grew about 3% over 2008, according to Obaid.

“Because growth this year is expected to be slower, we will maintain our workforce level at 1,600,” he added.

About 75% of the cargo handled at NBCT is full container load, which is expected to generate 70% of Penang Port’s revenue this year.

Obaid said the export and import of special glasses for solar panel manufacturing was on the rise, as more international solar power manufacturing companies were moving to Malaysia.

“We are also seeing a growth in rubber-based products being exported and imported out of NBCT,” he said.

Obaid said eight units of rail-mounted gantry crane at the NBCT were now being installed for operations at the end of March.

“These cranes will increase the speed of transferring container cargo to NBCT and to the vessels,” he added.

On the implementation of new port tariffs, Obaid said the review was now being studied by Penang Port Commission.

PORT - A New Container Port

Monday October 24, 2011

Tanjung Langsat Port to handle containers?

By ZAZALI MUSA
zaza@thestar.com.my

JOHOR BARU: Plans are underway to turn Tanjung Langsat Port (TLP) in Pasir Gudang into a containerised cargo port thus giving port users another alternative port of choice.

A source familiar with the port operations in Johor said with the former Johor Port chief executive officer Abdul Khalid Lal Khan now helming TLP, the plan to convert the port into a containerised port would soon be realised.

Johor Corp, the parent company of Tanjung Langsat Port Sdn Bhd, which operates TLP, had turned down a proposal by Abdul Khalil early this year, to turn TLP into a containerised port.

“However, Johor Corp has recently received a directive from a third party to accept Abdul Khalil’s proposal,” added the source.

The source told StarBiz that with the support of a “strong influencial third party,” it is likely that TLP would be getting a licence to handle the containerised cargo operation.

The Johor Port Authority (JPA) is mandated with the issuance of licences for all privatised ports in Johor but the source said TLP would likely get its licence straight from the Transport Ministry.

The JPA is the regulatory body for the privatised port operations in Johor and any decision to build a new port or issuance a new license would only be made by the Federal Government.

In June, the JPA said that TLP would not be turned into a containerised cargo port to reduce congestions at Johor Port as the two ports are close to each other. TLP is located about 15km from Johor Port in Pasir Gudang and the former currently handles liquid petroleum and hazardous cargo.

Many parties, especially port users, exporters and manufacturers based in Pasir Gudang, had suggested turning TLP into a containerised cargo port following the congestion in Johor Port.

“Unlike TLP, Johor Port has no more room to expand its facilities due to limited land area,” added the source.

MMC Corp Bhd, which controls both Johor Port and Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), had in 2009, proposed to consolidate and rationalise the operations of the two ports.

MALAYSIAN PORTS PERFORMANCE

Malaysia’s ports hold a steady course Malaysia's two busiest ports, Port Klangand Port of Tanjung Pelepas, have been left largely unscathed by the slowdown in commerce, reported Business Times. Both ports handled about 84 per cent of total container volumes that went through Malaysian ports in 2010. Commerce on the Asia-to-Europe route, the world's second-busiest container route, rose 4.2 per cent in the second quarter. The growth was the weakest since the end of 2009, according to England-based Container Trade Statistics. According to Port Klang Authority (PKA), which oversees both Westports and Northport, overall container trade grew by eight per cent to 6.3 million TEUs for the first eight months of the year. While there was a slight drop in exports in July and in imports in August 2011 compared to the previous year, the drop was deemed negligible or insignificant. About two-thirds of containers that go through Port Klang are bound for Asean, Far East and South Asia. About 10 per cent are Europe-bound while two percent are US-bound. Port Klang is projected to handle 9.4 million TEUs in 2011. Last year, it handled 8.9 million TEUs. "Total container volume handled at Port Klang reflects that Port Klang could meet its projection," the port regulator said. MMC Corp, however, while not expecting PTP and Johor Port to be adversely affected by the global economic slowdown, is anticipating slower transhipment growth for the year. The conglomerate owns both PTP and Johor Port. MMC Corp group managing director Datuk Hasni Harun told Business Times recently that it expected slower transhipment growth of between three and four percent this year compared with between six and seven percent in 2010. PTP saw container throughput rise by 16 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 3.6 million TEUs. Transhipment contributed more than 90 per cent of total containers handled in PTP for the first half of this year. The port has set a target of 7.5 million TEUs this year. PTP handled 6.3 million TEUs in 2010.