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Penang Port is expected to
commission its long awaited two units of quay
crane at its 900 metre container terminal at
North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) by
middle of this month.
“The commissioning of the post-panamax cranes
will greatly enhance the productivity at NBCT,”
said the chief operating officer of Penang Port
Sdn Bhd, Mohd Niana Merican.
“The delivery of the cranes is timely as the box
traffic volume at the port is now witnessing
double digit growth,” he said.
Additional services, more ship arrivals and
increasing size of the ships lifted total box
traffic lifting at the port rose by 11.24 per
cent to 443,062 TEUs in the first six months
period of this year as compared with 398,304
TEUs in the corresponding period of last year.
Naina said in addition to the two post-panamax
quay cranes, the port would be taking delivery
of two more harbor cranes to handle the
increasing volume of box traffic at the port.
With new these deliveries the port will have
nine quay cranes and two harbour cranes to
handle container traffic.
Penang Port last year handled 849,730 TEUs in
2006, recording a 6.8 per cent growth compared
with corresponding period in 2005.
Meanwhile, the development of the container
back-up area under Phase 2B is progressing well
and is expected to be completed by end of this
year. The completion of the yard will raise the
container handling capacity to of the port to
1.2 million TEUs.
In response to rising demand, plans are also in
pipeline to further expand the container berth
by another 600 meters and bring the entire
length of the NBCT to 1.5km.
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