NORTHPORT Facilities

 Berthing Facilities

 Handling Equipment (Unit)

 Storage & CFS Facilities

 Berthing Facilities

 Handling Equipment

 Storage (sq.m)

 Berthing Facilities

 Storage (sq.m.)

The impact of the slow down of the world economy precipitated by the recession in the US has yet to be felt by the national economy and hence Northport’s cargo volumes. In fact, if any the first quarter of this year saw an unprecedented increase in the volume of container throughout at Northport.
 
“This is because Northport does not depend entirely on direct trade to US but we are “Asia-centric” port with some 65-70 per cent of the volume originated and destined from Intra-Asia market,” said the Managing Director/CEO of Northport Malaysia, Dato’ Basheer Hassan.
           

The first three months traffic figures show that the port registered 17 per cent increase in the container throughput totalling 730,452 TEUs.
 
The growth rate exceeded our expectation (based on our KPI was forecast at 5 % increase). It is to be noted that the increase was more than twice the rate of growth we posted for the year 2007 during which we handled 2.86 million TEUs, representing 7.5 per cent increase over the volume handled in 2006, said Datuk Basheer.
 
Northport expects strong performance in 2008 as Intra-Asian economies continues to register positive growth.
 
The recently released Bank Negara Report 2007 highlighted that exports to North East Asia (excluding Japan) expanded by 10.4 per cent, underpinned by the growth in exports to China and South Korea.
 
China has become Malaysia’s second major source of imports, with imports comprising mainly electronic and electrical components and chemicals.
 

In tandem with this development, Northport, the gateway port for the China trade has seen increasing string of new services with bigger capacity ships, including new transhipment service launched by Maersk Line linking Vietnam with Northport as a hub port.
 
Today Northport is well connected with all major ports in China namely Dalian, Xinggang, Tianjin, Lungkou, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Shekou and Hong Kong. Sailings to these

ports has been on rise as the Malaysia-Sino bilateral trade on upward trend over the last couple of year with external trade totalled RM160.58 billion in 2007.

On the other hand trade with ASEAN remained resilient, with exports expanding by 6.6 per cent in 2007. Notably, trade with Vietnam and Indonesia recorded robust growth of 23.8 per cent and 19 cent respectively. The major six Asean members controlling some 25 per cent of our external trade or RM276.05 billion worth of goods traded in 2007.
 
Vietnam’s increased openness to trade after its accession to the World Trade Organisation in November 2006 contributed towards an increase in Malaysia’s export share to Vietnam. Higher exports were reflected in exports of iron and steel products for the construction industry and E&E products.
 
Meanwhile, exports to Indonesia were supported by demand for petroleum and chemical products. Singapore (with RM146.46 billion) remained as the major trading partner from Asean and followed by Thailand (with RM56.99 billion) and Indonesia (with RM39.13 billion) in 2007.
 
Datuk Basheer however cautioned on prospects for growth ahead.
 
“With the IMF now expecting the world economy, which grew by a robust 4.9 per cent last year, to slow sharply to 3.7 per cent to 3.8 per cent in 2008, the slow down could impact on a number of hit a number of trade-oriented countries,” he noted.
 
Malaysia, which has one of the most open economies in the world, could feel the impact of the anticipated slow-down and this would influence cargo throughput at local ports.
 
However given that the various measures have been initiated by the government, and the recent prognosis by the Ministry of Finance recording a growth rate of 6 per cent, we are hopeful that there would be a sustained growth in the national trade, on which we are dependent upon for our growth, Datuk Basheer added.

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Shin Yang extends regional port outreach

Feeder specialist Shin Yang Lines, which hubs at Northport, has extended its network to Penang Port from which it plans to further extend its expanding network of regional shipping services. The move is expected to further boost transshipment into Northport.
 
Anticipating the expansion of Penang Port with the development of the Northern Corridor Economic Development in the northern region of Peninsula Malaysia, the Malaysian shipping line will launch its new service in the next couple of months.
 
Shin Yang’s Shipping Group General Manager, Capt Ting Hien Liong said the line was confident of the new service as Penang Port has been attracting large volumes of box traffic from Thailand and northern Sumatra.
 
“We are targeting the traffic as well as linking up our service with port sin Sabah and Sarawak,” said Capt Ting.
 
“Shin Yang will be feedering the East Malaysian cargoes from Penang Port to Northport in Port Klang, the emerging hub port for the short-sea trade between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah/Sarawak and then we will transship boxes directly via one of the eight weekly sailings to East Malaysian ports. Our extensive connectivity from Northport will able to offer one of the best transit time for Penang shippers to reach East Malaysian market,” said Capt Ting.
 
Besides the planned new service to Penang Port, Shin Yang has started to deploy bigger capacity container ship at Northport which is a clear endorsement of the expanding trade and critical role Northport plays in the short sea trade.
 
Today, we have four weekly sailing to Kota Kinabalu port, two weekly sailing to Tawau, Kuching Port & Sandakan Port and one weekly sailing to Bintulu Port, Miri Port, Pasir Gudang Port and Sibu respectively from Northport. In total we have a total of eight weekly sailing to the various ports in Sabah and Sarawak to and from Northport. This has made our average lifting rose almost two-fold from 160 TEUs in 2003 to well above 300 TEUs in 2007.

“Unlike other operators in the domestic trade we at Shin Yang believe in fewer but direct port calls for each string to ensure faster transit time. All our service will only have minimal number of port calls in a single string. On the Eastbound leg, we offers direct sailing from Northport to Kuching Port, Kota Kinabalu Port, Sibu, Miri and Bintulu Port,” said Capt Ting.
 
“With Northport as our transshipment hub, we have further widened the direct global connectivity with shippers in Sabah and Sarawak. Today East Malaysian shippers have wider selection of shipping lines and global connectivity via Northport. The line is represented by Hock Leong Shipping Sdn Bhd, a well established agent with more 26 years experience in the trade ,” he said.
   

Our services not only grown in size over the period but the capacity of ships deployed in the trade has also increased. Towards third quarter of 2007 we have deployed Danum 68, the biggest Malaysian made container carrier with ability to carry 390 containers between Northport and East Malaysia. In February 2008 we have deployed another sister ships, Danum 69 with similar capacity in the trade.
 
In tandem with the economic growth and the demand for bigger capacity ships we will continue our expansion drive in the trade. Today, we are proud to say that Shin Yang is one of the fast growing domestic liner operators which has connectivity to all ports in Sabah and Sarawak stressed Capt Ting
 
Box volume handled by Shin Yang at Northport has grown tremendously from well below 10,000 TEUs in 2003 to close 50,000 TEUs in 2007, an average growth of over 70 per cent over the last four years 

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