PTP volume up 7.5% in 2009

PTP volume up 7.5% in 2009    The Port of Tanjung Pelepas in southern Malaysia recorded container volume growth of 7.5 percent in 2009, outperforming nearly every other major port in Asia.
   PTP handled 6 million TEUs during 2009. The growth at the transshipment-oriented port was in stake contrast to a 13.3 percent drop in volume at the nearby Port of Singapore.
   Though PTP draws import-export volume from southern Malaysia, both Singapore and PTP are primarily reliant on transshipment. However, PTP officials said its import-export volume grew in 2009, with 20 percent of Johor cargo moving through the port.
   'We are fortunate to be one of very few ports in the world which recorded an increase in container volumes in 2009,” said PTP Chairman Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman. 'While existing customers contributed with new services, new volumes brought in by PTP’s latest signing, French shipping line CMA-CGM, also added to the numbers. There was also a 9 percent increase in local volume from the Johor industrial hinterland.”
   Sidik said the port has gradually grown the number of lines calling at the port, and that more long-haul services are now provided, alleviating the need for Malaysian shippers to transship.
   “We now have more shipping lines calling our port compared to the early years,' he said. 'Apart from Evergreen and Maersk Line, we have CMA-CGM, MISC and other shipping lines providing direct services to many global destinations. Local cargo shipped out of PTP does not need to go through other transshipment ports before they can connect to bigger long-haul vessels, as they are already calling PTP directly.'