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Mainland
China has two national lines, Coscon and
CSCL, Hong Kong has OOCL and Taiwan has
Evergreen, Yang Ming and Wan Hai. Korea
has Hanjin and Hyundai, Japan has NYK Line,
K Line and MOL, while Singapore has APL.
And
until rather recently Malaysia has MISC.
But after years of struggling in the container
shipping industry, Malaysia, despite its
thriving ports of Port Klang and Tanjung
Pelepas, has no national container shipping
line today.
And
according to sources in the industry, it
looks as though that will remain the situation
for some time to come.
"There
has been no indication of any Malaysian
shipping line stepping in [to fill] the
void left by MISC's exit from the container
trade", said Nazery Khalid, a senior
maritime academic at the Malaysian Maritime
Institute, to The HKSG Group.
Though
Malaysia has some container lines of repute
such as Global Carriers and Nepline, but
these according to industry sources, have
not expressed any interest.
And,
making the matter doubly worse for Malaysia
to not rush into things is the continued
squall in the liner business.
"I
doubt if we will see any company stepping
in anytime soon, not with the liner business
still in the doldrums with low demand for
boxship services amid the economic downturn
and the persistent entry of huge new tonnage
in the market", highlighted Mr Khalid.
The
lack of interest, or correspondingly of
any initiative by the Malaysian government
to tackle the vacuum left behind by MISC,
will only serve as a drain on foreign exchange
earnings (forex), an industry insider told
this publication.
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