New MCT Operator Early Next Year
By Za'im Zaini

Bandar Seri Begawan - "An international and experienced operator is expected to move in to handle containers at the Muara Container Terminal by early next year," Acting Director at the Ports Department Hj Souyono Bin Salamat said yesterday.

He spoke on the achievements of MCT more than one year since the pull out of PSA Muara during a press conference yesterday.

Despite the pullout, MCI' remains strong and has not seen any deterioration and instead has grown stronger with the increasing number of TEUs (one TEU represents the cargo capacity of a standard shipping container 20 feet long and eight feet wide), the replacement of larger vessels making vessel calls and ability to match and outdo the average container moves compared to earlier times.

The acting director, however could not reveal who will be the new operator but "there is a new arrangement this time around, "unlike previously, the new operator is expected to only handle the containers, while management and revenue collection will be done by the Ports Department. The government will be paying the operator operation fee instead based on their bidding".

"One of the benefits for this is that the government earns much more revenue by doing so. Ever since the pullout, government revenue from MCT has shot up five times more compared to the PSA Muara era plus the Ports Department will have 100 per cent say in the direction of MCT".

According to statistics from the Ports Department, from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, the number of containers throughput that MCT saw was 134,586.25 TEUs compared to the 2006 figure of 101,545.50 TEUs.

The number of imports was up in 2007, 45,079.50 TEUs compared to 2006's 38,299.25.

At the moment, the average number of container moves conducted by the current temporary operator, ASAF Sdn Bhd, is able to match up to PSA's number and at times was able to slightly outdo them. At the moment, the temporary operator can do an average of 27 to 30 containers moves per hour, compared to the previous 27 containers per hour.

Meanwhile, ever since the takeover by the Ports Department of MCT, it saw six new container vessels from Singapore and Malaysia making vessel calls and the replacement of smaller vessels with bigger vessels, although there was a drop in terms of number of container vessel calls which from April 2006 to March 2007 saw 560 vessels compared to 471 vessels from April 2007 to March 2008.

The acting director explained that the drop was due to the transition period of management of MCT from PSA Muara to the Ports Department which saw several vessels rerouting to other ports. However, he noted that at the moment MCT is gaining more and more confidence from shipping liners as well as bigger vessels making the port of call.

The performance of MCT is as good as PSA Muara. It also shows that we are doing better than during the PSA Muara era, it is a sign of confidence in our capability of the performance we achieved to satisfy shipping liners.

On April 1, 2007, the Ports Department took over the operation, management and revenue collection until May 20, 2007. The short period was due to the shortage of manpower as previously PSA Muara had around 100 personnel while ports department had around 50 personnel to handle everything.

On May 20, the Ports Department was given approval to engage a temporary operator to handle MCT, while waiting for a permanent operator. The operator is a local company, ASAF Sdn Bhd or Abdul Saman Ahmad Freight Forwarding Sdn Bhd , which has been temporarily operating (handling containers) for a year plus.

Among the reasons why MCT is performing is also due to the local operator ASAF Sdn Bhd engaging former PSA staff who run the crucial operation. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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