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Shippers in Malaysia have been urged to use
Greater Seattle Port which is fast growing and
is strategically located in the northwest corner
of the United States.
“It a great Malaysian gateway for much of North
America,” said the President of Washington
State, US Bank, Ken Kirkpatrick.
Ken Kirkpatrick, who was heading the 26-member
US MNCs delegation from Seattle region to
Malaysia recently said Malaysian shippers should
take advantage of the Greater Seattle region to
penetrate the US market.
The region which supported by three major
seaports namely Port of Seattle, Tacoma and Port
of Everett is a leading center of distribution
and logistics to serve the US market.
Welcoming the Greater Seattle region delegates
the FMM Vice President, Dato’ Francis Huang said
the North America remained as the key trading
partner for Malaysia.
The US remained as the top trading partner with
Malaysia. Malaysia imported RM62 billion worth
of goods and exported RM113 billion worth of
goods last year.
The external trade to US remains buoyant with
total volume reaching RM73.7 billion in the
first half of this year.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Port of Seattle,
Lloyd Hara said today, the Seattle-Tacoma port
region is the third largest shipping hub in
North America, smaller only than New York/New
Jersey and Los Angeles/Long Beach.
Greater Seattle is one sailing day closer to
Asia than the California ports, making it a
major crossroads for the exchange of goods
between the continents.
Hara said Port of Seattle is one of the largest
container and breakbulk cargo centers on the
West Coast and handled 19.51 million tones of
cargo worth RM124.78 (1USD=RM3.4) billion last
year. We handled 1.98 million TEUs in 2006 and
for the first eight months of this year we are
hitting 1.3 million TEUs.
The US shippers imported RM1.85 billion worth of
goods in 2005 via the port of Seattle. Wearing
apparel, office & DP machines, parts and audio
equipment has made up almost 60 per cent of the
import goods via the port.
Hara said apple is one of the key export items
via the port terminal.
“We exported RM42.5 million worth of apples to
Malaysian market in 2005. However, dairy
products and animal feeds top our export list to
Malaysian market with RM70.38 million and
RM43.18 million respectively in 2005.
Besides Seattle, the Port of Tacoma which forms
part of the Greater Seattle located on
Commencement Bay handled 19.51 million tonnes of
various cargo and 2.06 million TEUs last year.
Malaysia remained as the fifth biggest trading
partner with the Port of Tacoma.
A total of RM2,176 million worth of goods has
move-in and out of the US via the Port of Tacoma
last year. In tandem with expanding volume of
trade the port has announced plans to build a
new RM1.02 billion million container terminal on
the east side of Blair Waterway and is expected
to be ready for commercial operation in 2012.
Meanwhile the Port of Everett, located 25 miles
north of Seattle on Puget Sound, handles
approximately 1 million tons of cargo per year.
The Port’s primary exports are logs, lumber,
agricultural products and frozen foods; imports
are bulk alumina ore and specialized aircraft
parts for the Boeing Company. |
