Northport To Continue With RM500m Expansion Plan

Published: 2009/04/24
NORTHPORT (Malaysia) Bhd will continue its expansion plans at Port Klang this year, despite a sluggish business environment.

The NCB Holdings Bhd (5509) subsidiary, which operates the country's largest multipurpose port, has budgeted RM500 million for the expansion.

However, it will be prudent in its spending, expanding in stages and according to what it needs.

"Investment activity is still going on at Northport. We are going ahead with one-third of the allocation even though the company at this time is facing a reduction in quantity in container handling, as a result of the sluggish economy," said NCB managing director Datuk Abdul Samad Mohamed.
"This (investment) is our commitment. We do not view the current economic scenario as limiting the company's activities, rather we want to take advantage of the situation by creating opportunities to upgrade or replace machinery and equipment at the port," he said in an interview recently.

Northport, which handles more than 60 per cent of Malaysia's imports and exports, is connected to more than 200 ports around the world.

The port operator owns and operates 15 special wharves for handling bulk cargo, drybulk and liquid bulk, in addition to 13 container wharves at Port Klang.

"If Malaysian ports want to remain relevant in this dynamic and competitive international port system, we must continue to prepare facilities for the huge vessels, which include more equipment and deeper channels," he said.

Although Northport is affected by the slower economy, it may have seen the worst in container volumes.

In the first two months of this year, the number of containers handled fell nearly 15 per cent compared to the same period last year.

However, this recovered in March with only an 8 per cent reduction.

"It is too difficult to put a target for this year, but what we can say is that there will always be trading activities even during an economic slowdown," he added.

Last year, Northport handled more than three million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), 7 per cent more from the 2.8 million TEUs recorded in 2007.

Meanwhile, Abdul Samad said NCB is one of the Permodalan Nasional Bhd companies taking part in the ongoing Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) 2009 at Plaza Angsana, Johor Bahru.

The educational exhibition will showcase the various activities of Northport and Kontena Nasional, the logistics unit of NCB.