KUALA LUMPUR: Northport (M) Bhd has hit an all-time excessive when it comes to container quantity this 12 months, with its 2021 throughput up to now being 20.7% larger than in 2020.
Despite battling “two perfect storms,” specifically the Covid-19 pandemic and the latest, unprecedented flash floods, Northport mentioned it efficiently discharged the 3,305,765th container from the Interasia Horizon vessel, surpassing the earlier report of three,305,764 20-foot equal models (TEUs) set in 2010.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and implementation of lockdowns by many countries across the world in the year 2021 have had a significant impact on global economic activities and trade. The disruptive effects were felt across a wide range of economic sectors and industries both globally and domestically as lives and livelihoods were affected,” the port operator mentioned in a press release yesterday.
Northport added that the international provide chain was completely disrupted as main ports had both shut down operations or confronted exceptionally lengthy vessel delays.
“Northport’s operations were not spared initially, but the culmination of efforts to improve its operational efficiency and productivity had helped reduce the impact of the supply chain disruption,” it mentioned.
North Port Klang
In the identical assertion, Northport chief govt officer Datuk Azman Shah Mohd Yusof mentioned the firm had launched into the “Reinventing Northport” programme since the takeover of Northport by MMC Corp Bhd
in 2016.
He mentioned this initiative included refocusing Northport’s technique to turn out to be an area gateway and intra-Asia hub, optimising the port operator’s working prices, changing ageing tools, enhancing its services and enhancing the firm’s providers and productiveness.
“This had led us to break our highest monthly container handling performance by recording 310,865 TEUs in December last year.
“We were making steady progress until the pandemic hit us hard,” he mentioned.
Azman Shah mentioned the main problem for its operations got here at the begin of the 12 months, when the port skilled heavy congestion at its container yard as a consequence of a excessive variety of vessel calls.
“The discharge of containers from the vessels was more than the loading operation.
“As was the case with most ports, overstaying transhipment containers became a huge problem as other ports were either closed or facing heavy congestion.”
Azman Shah mentioned Northport confronted greater than 250 vessel omissions in 2021, as transport traces realigned their schedules and omitted port calls.
“The issue was further exacerbated when the movement of import and export containers by hauliers was affected by the implementation of lockdowns by the Malaysian government.”
Azman Shah mentioned the congestion at Northport’s container yard and gates had resulted in a decrease productiveness fee for its container operations, which then led to delays in vessel berthing.
“However, Northport was quick to respond to the issue with short, medium and long-term action plans to reduce the congestion. The measures were proven effective as the port’s operations recovered in less than one month.
“The ports and logistics industry players came together and did their part, aided by the government agencies and led by Port Klang Authority to bring some semblance of normalcy to Port Klang’s operations,” he mentioned.
Overall, Azman Shah mentioned 2021 ranks as Northport’s finest 12 months ever with many notable achievements.
Going ahead, he mentioned Northport is cautiously optimistic on the prospects of 2022 in the face of an unsure financial outlook, given the rise of recent Covid-19 infections that has been introduced on by the Omicron variant.
“We will continue with the next phase of ‘Reinventing Northport’ as we are expanding our yard capacity and buying new equipment to further boost our productivity and achieve more success in the years to come, in our transformational journey to be a safer, greener, smarter and better port.”
