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STRONG
Intra-Asia trade last year helped to bolster
Malaysia's Port Klang (Kelang) throughput
in 2012, despite a slowdown in transpacific
and Asia-Europe trade.
It
is hoped that such growth will continue
this year, particularly given the gloomy
prognosis on the major trade lanes again
this yearˇK
It
must be noted, however, that the growth
at Port Klang, which was just 4.1 per cent
last year, is not necessarily an overwhelmingly
positive result, but rather it is an impressive
result for a well established port in a
year that saw very limited growth on a global
scale.
Industry
watchers and analysts, such as Clarkson
Research Services, estimate that global
trade volumes increased by just over four
per cent last year, rather than the seven
per cent that had been initially forecast.
So
Port Klang's performance was well in line
with the global average...
Captain
David Padman, general manager for the Port
Klang Authority (PKA), the corporate body
overseeing two of the port's terminals (Northport
and Westport), said both terminals had handled
some 10 million boxes comprising indigenous
and transhipment cargo, when speaking to
the Star newspaper. Indigenous cargo is
box volume originating from Malaysia's vast
hinterland.
Giving
an upbeat assessment of the box numbers,
Nazery Khalid, senior fellow at the Maritime
Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) told The HKSG
Group that external causes such as robust
Intra-Asian and Intra-ASEAN trade benefited
ports located along the Straits of Malacca.
Apart
from a growth in transhipment cargo, which
contributed significantly to Port Klang's
throughput figures, it is now widely believed
that heavy investments in capacity handling
during the lean years of 2009 to 2011 vastly
improved PKA's productivity and efficiency
to handle more volumes and provide very
good services at competitive prices.
These,
according to Mr Khalid, have helped to provide
a range of value-added services and facilities
to users thus encouraging existing clients
to remain and eventually attracting newer
ones.
The
port, for instance, is equipped with enhanced
container handling equipment, complete with
rubber-tyre gantry and crawler cranes, and
is capable of handling up to 14 million
TEU per annum.
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