KUCHING: Palm oil vessels calling at the Bintulu Port have cut down waiting time following the recent completion and operation of a 120m barge berth facility.
The new facility has increased the turnaround time and minimised the waiting period for vessels at the palm oil jetty, said Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd (BPHB) chief executive officer Datuk Mior Ahmad Baiti Mior Lub Ahmad.
He said with the upgraded facility, palm oil’s handling operations had become more effective and efficient.
Mior Ahmad said BPHB’s subsidiary Biport Bulkers Sdn Bhd had maintained its leadership as the main export centre for palm oil products in Sarawak by handling over 90% of the state’s oil production.
“The cargo throughput for (palm oil products) in 2015 is marginally higher at 3.57 million tonnes compared to 3.54 million tonnes in 2014.
“The slightly higher achievement is consistent with the global demand for Malaysian palm oil products and the crude palm oil production in Sarawak,” he added when reviewing the port performance in the newly released BPHB 2015 annual report.
Going forward, Mior Ahmad said in order to capitalise on the palm oil industry, the BPHB group would continue to focus on its business development and continuous customer orientation.
Last year, Bintulu Port’s total cargo throughput dropped by 1.3% to 44.8 million tonnes against 45.4 million tonnes in 2014.
Liquified natural gas (LNG), the main cargo, was down by 1.6% to 25.1 million tonnes from 25.5 million tonnes in 2014.
Non-LNG cargo handled slipped by 0.95% to 19.7 million tonnes from 19.9 million tonnes year-on-year.
”The decrease is mainly contributed by liquid bulk and break bulk cargo, which recorded a negative growth of 2.01% from 9.45 million tonnes to 9.26 million tonnes and 19.64% from 1.68 million tonnes to 1.35 million tonnes respectively.
“The reduction was mainly attributed to the slow export in condensate and petroleum products aside from slow export of timber-based cargo,” explained Mior Ahmad.
He said dry bulk cargo, on the other hand, recorded a 21% growth to 4.1 million tonnes from 3.4 million tonnes, with the hike attributed mainly to agricultural-based products, such as palm kernel products, bulk fertiliser, granulea urea and importation of raw materials for the manufacturing plants in Samalaju Industrial Park.
On containerised cargo, he said the port handled 243,699 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) last year, which was down by 9.9% from 270,945 TEUs in 2014.
The drop was blamed on the lower export volume of timber-based products as well as slow demand for aluminium and wax-based products.
Mior Ahmad said the number of vessels calling at Bintulu Port last year fell to 8,478 from 7,329 in 2014 or down by 13.6%.
“The decrease was due to the effect of the global oil price, low commodity price and major importing countries’ economic slowdown, especially in China.
“In addition, passenger and supply boats for oil and gas recorded a decrease of 22% from 10 average calls per day to seven calls per day,”he added.
For financial year ended Dec 31, 2015, BPHB posted a group pre-tax profit of RM168.5mil against RM192.6mil in FY2014 or a drop of 24.1mil.
The group’s total operating revenue fell by 0.9% to RM547.4mil.
On the way forward, Mior Ahmad said: ”We remain resilient and positive and will carry out several business initiatives that include project development, exploring new businesses, strategic marketing plan implementation, improvement in port operational performance, customer engagement and sustainability on operational cost.’’
He said the port looked forward to the operational commencement of MLNG Train 9, which would add an additional 3.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG cargo to the current capacity of 25.7 million tonnes per annum, bringing the total capacity to 29.3 million tonnes per annum.
The Train 9 is expected to commence operation in third quarter 2016.
Mior Ahmad added that BPHB’s long term prospects hinged on Samalaju as it would potentially boost and stimulate the state economic activities on the back of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative.
Several energy-intensive industries, such as aluminium and ferro silicon and manganese smelters are now operational in Samalaju Industrial Park.
Source: The Star