RM400m Bintulu port (Malaysia) upgrade
Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd plans to spend up to RM400 million in three years to expand and upgrade its facilities to become a distribution centre for bulk fertiliser, a petrochemical hub and a major transhipment container port.
Bintulu Port chief executive officer Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad said the conversion of a 950-metre wharf at the port into a multi-purpose terminal to handle dry bulk cargo, bulk fertilisers and palm oil bulking is among the major works to be done.
Others include expanding its palm oil bulking facility to handle 75,110 tonnes of palm oil at any one time, upgrading its international container terminal, and buying new handling equipment and new tug boats.
Speaking to reporters after the firm's annual general meeting in Kuching Saturday, Mior said the wharf that was originally built to handle paper products of the now failed Borneo Pulp and Paper Industry, would be upgraded to meet current needs.
The cost of upgrading the wharf is RM120 million, Mior said. It includes building a new storage yard. Work is expected to start soon and is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Upgrading the wharf means that the proposed construction of another 1,000-metre wharf is being shelved, Mior disclosed.
The port's container terminal, which currently has a capacity to handle 400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year, would be able to handle 6,500 TEUs when expansion work is completed also in 2010.
But work on its expansion would only start in 2008.
Transhipment of containerised cargoes make up 60 percent of the port's total throughput.
Transhipments are mainly from ports in Sabah and Sarawak and to a lesser extent from ports in the Philippines and Kalimantan.
The volume of containers the port handled grew by 35 per cent in 2005 from 147,800 TEUs to 199,704 TEUs in 2006, which was the highest since 2003.
"The rate had been recognised as the highest growth rate compared to all Malaysian ports," said chairman Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin in a statement.
Bintulu Port expects its transhipment this year to grow by about 16 per cent over last year's figures.
Liquefied natural gas still remains the major contributor to the cargo throughput of the port in 2006 with 58.6 per cent.
Bintulu Port chief executive officer Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad said the conversion of a 950-metre wharf at the port into a multi-purpose terminal to handle dry bulk cargo, bulk fertilisers and palm oil bulking is among the major works to be done.
Others include expanding its palm oil bulking facility to handle 75,110 tonnes of palm oil at any one time, upgrading its international container terminal, and buying new handling equipment and new tug boats.
Speaking to reporters after the firm's annual general meeting in Kuching Saturday, Mior said the wharf that was originally built to handle paper products of the now failed Borneo Pulp and Paper Industry, would be upgraded to meet current needs.
The cost of upgrading the wharf is RM120 million, Mior said. It includes building a new storage yard. Work is expected to start soon and is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Upgrading the wharf means that the proposed construction of another 1,000-metre wharf is being shelved, Mior disclosed.
The port's container terminal, which currently has a capacity to handle 400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year, would be able to handle 6,500 TEUs when expansion work is completed also in 2010.
But work on its expansion would only start in 2008.
Transhipment of containerised cargoes make up 60 percent of the port's total throughput.
Transhipments are mainly from ports in Sabah and Sarawak and to a lesser extent from ports in the Philippines and Kalimantan.
The volume of containers the port handled grew by 35 per cent in 2005 from 147,800 TEUs to 199,704 TEUs in 2006, which was the highest since 2003.
"The rate had been recognised as the highest growth rate compared to all Malaysian ports," said chairman Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin in a statement.
Bintulu Port expects its transhipment this year to grow by about 16 per cent over last year's figures.
Liquefied natural gas still remains the major contributor to the cargo throughput of the port in 2006 with 58.6 per cent.
