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Penang Port, which is poised
to play a positive role in catalyzing the
development of the Northern Corridor Economic
Region (NCER), is ready to bring forward its
expansion plan to meet the anticipated increase
on demand for its port facilities and services.
Penang Port Sdn Bhd, the port operating company,
which is completing its Phase 2B (3) development
will adds 23 ha of container yard space and will
boost its capacity to handle 1 million TEUs, is
ready with Phase 3 Project of the development of
the North Butterworth Container Terminal.
Disclosing this, the General Manager (Container)
of PPSB, Obaid Hj Mansor said the first phase of
the Phase 3 Project will add a further 600 metre
of quay line to the existing 900 metre container
berth.
“We are ready to bring forward the expansion
which we had drawn up even before the NCER was
announced,” he said.
The expansion when completed will add an
estimated 840,000 TEUs handling capacity served
by additional size quayside cranes.
The subsequent development of the Phase 3
rolling expansion plan will also see new
stacking to provide greater flexibility in the
storage and yard activities at the extended
container terminal.
According to Obaid, over the longer term and if
growth in demand is sustained, the port
expansion plans provides for a further extension
of the container quay line would eventually
stretch by 1,800 metres.
This development calls for the dredging of the
North Channel to a depth of 14 metres with a
view to receiving the bigger mainline vessels.
The port’s expansion phases also involve the
development of Free Commercial Zones for
warehousing and distribution activities and Free
Industrial Zone to facilitate manufacturing and
processing industries.
The NCER, launched in July 2006, envisages the
development of a logistics hub centered at
Penang Port bounded by Penang International
Airport.
In order to facilitate the port playing an
expanded role, the NCER plan expects Penang Port
to be privatized.
The implementation of projects in the NCER calls
for the port to re-strategise its role
consistent with the stated objectives of the
regional development initiative.
Meanwhile, Penang Port, which in 2007 handled a
total of 925,991 TEUs expects to handle more
than 1 million TEUs this year, including an
encouraging a three-fold leap in transshipment
to 75,000 TEUs.
In addition, the port which handled 9.8 million
tones of non containerized tonnage, expects to
handle about 10.3 million tones this year. |
