|
THAILAND
plans to build transport infrastructure
ahead of its entry into ASEAN Economic Community
(AEC) in 2015, starting with a port expansion
at Bangkok's deepwater Port of Laem Chabang.
The
Port Authority of Thailand aims to expand
a third large basin to increase capacity
by eight million TEU to total 18.8 million
TEU first scheduled for completion by 2016,
but expects to be delayed by environmental
impact studies until 2020.
Laem
Chabang, one of the world's top 20 ports,
is at full capacity at its Basin 1 and Basin
2. Basin 1 has a capacity of four million
TEU annually and can accommodate postpanamax
vessels of 50,000 dwt. The second basin
handles 6.8 million TEU and annually and
postpanamax vessels of 80,000 dwt.
Basin
3 will enable the port to handle postpanamax
size ships and to be the transshipment hub
of Indo-China region, said its general administration
officer Zoroz Kajohnprasart, reported the
American Journal of Transportation.
The
port boasts of 15 terminal operators and
Hong Kong's Hutchinson is its biggest port
operator. NYK, "K" Line, Evergreen,
OOCL and MOL are among the carriers with
direct calls on rotations including Shanghai,
Hong Kong, Busan, Kaohsiung, Tokyo, Dubai,
Rotterdam, Antwerp, Jawaharlal Nehru, Durban,
Singapore, Port Klang, Tanjung Pelepas,
Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Automobiles
are its second largest freight category
due to the high concentration of automakers,
which include Mitsubishi, in free trade
zones on Thailand's eastern seaboard, 3.5
kilometres from the port.
The
development of a dedicated rail service,
the Single Rail Transfer Operation, to an
intermodal container yard to Suvarnabhumi
International Airport near Bangkok will
reduce truck traffic and shift intermodal
to rail. The port's intermodal transfer
station has a capacity of two million TEU.
Further
infrastructure projects in Thailand include
major overhaul of its rail systems, new
railway lines and expansion of links such
as between Bangkok and the northern city
of Chiang Mai.
The
collaboration would provide Thailand with
a gateway to the Indian Ocean and to western
markets, reducing its current transit of
two to three days through the crowded Malacca
Straits.
|
