Bintulu Port records lower cargo volume

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Apr 2009

Bintulu Port Holdings Berhad has recorded a 30 per cent drop in cargo volume for the first quarter of this year. Chief executive officer Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad, who disclosed this yesterday, said this was due to the drop in the container and break bulk sectors. Although cargo volume was lower compared to the same period last year, Mior is confident that there would be improvement later in the year as there are some signs of increase in the volume especially last month.
“In January this year, the container cargo volume was 3.15 million metric tonnes and 2.93 million metric tonnes in February, but in March we recorded 3.5 million metric tonnes,” he said.
“Similarly in terms of containers, in January it was 15,000 and it went down to 14,400 in February but in March, it went up to 19,000.
“But it’s too early to say what will be our outlook for this year, but we will continue to monitor closely the monthly figures,” Mior told reporters at a press conference after the company’s annual general meeting.
He said the only sector that remained steady and contributed greatly to the group’s revenue was the liquid bulk sector.
Mior said the container volume had grown by 15.24 per cent from 251,8000 TEUs (Twenty-Footer Equivalent Units) in 2007 to 290,167 TEUs last year.
The growth was largely attributed to the increase of trans-shipment volume during the first half of 2008.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was the major contributor of the total cargo throughput for Bintulu Port Sdn Bhd, at 56.05 per cent last year.
Other contributors were container cargo, which constituted 10.64 per cent, crude oil (9.98 per cent), palm oil products (4.8 per cent), petroleum products (3.37 per cent), logs (2.64 per cent), plywood (2.07 per cent), sawn timber (1.35 per cent), LPG (1.08 per cent) and urea (1.2 per cent).
Asked on the strategy the group would take to generate greater cargo volume, Mior said the group is continuing with developments to expand facilities at the port.
He said quite a number of projects, which started last year and are expected to be completed in 2011, costing an estimated RM600 million are ongoing at Bintulu Port.
“We started with the expansion of our container terminal facility in September last year where we are aiming to increase the volume capacity from 400,000 TEUs to 600,000 TEUs,” he said.
Mior added the company had just awarded a contract to build a container freight station last week and it will soon be awarding the contract for the construction of additional storage tanks for palm oil bulking to increase its capacity from 76,000 to 200,000 metric tonnes.
Other projects include the expansion of the multipurpose terminal, development of an additional berth for the edible oil terminal, oil and gas terminal and break bulk facilities.
“We are also looking forward to developments in Bintulu and the rest of the state for more cargo to come into our port,” he said.
Among those present at the press conference were board members Tun Datuk Seri Mohd Eusoff Chin and Tan Sri Datuk Seri Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin.

Source: The Borneo Post