KUALA LUMPUR: Port Klang's main terminals Westports and Northport have been able to maintain their landside productivity to ensure there is no significant impact on delivery services and schedules, the Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF) said.
Speaking to Business Times, FMFF president Datuk Tony Chia Han Teun said its members had indicated that delivery times remain consistent at both terminals.
"Our customers also have not reported any delays that affect their production schedules," he said.
Tony said Westports reported the unpredictability of ship arrivals at the shipside.
"For the first week, berths may be vacant and another week it may have many vessels arriving and queuing for berths. There may be no 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent units ships in a week but two may arrive the next week," he said.
Chia was commenting on the ongoing Red Sea crisis that has prompted a major rerouting of ships and ultimately weighed down on ports handling the Asia-Europe trade.
He noted that during the Hari Raya festive period, there was some clustering of vessels at Port Klang, but it had mostly been resolved.
"Presently, many vessels have been diverted to Port Klang as shipping lines have omitted certain ports and look to other ports to handle the vessels," he clarified.
Chia said at Northport, there were reports of extended inspection periods conducted by the Department of Quarantine and Inspection Services Malaysia (MAQIS), as well as other government agencies (OGAs) and the Customs Department.
"Northport has explained that because of the previous lower volume of imports at the terminal, inspections by these agencies were carried only in the morning," he added.
He noted that Northport had communicated that a meeting with OGAs took place today to propose two inspection sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon.
"As an urgent initiative to resolve the problem, Northport will open up CT2 to provide 60 additional slots for inspection services," he noted.
Meanwhile, Chia said Westports still has the capacity to manage unexpected shipping arrivals, particularly since many discharged containers are intended for transshipment.
"Northport handles fewer of these unexpected vessels and delays time for berths is considerably less, and it would usually handle three to four ships that have been diverted from Westports and Singapore.
"However, since these vessels bring mainly transshipment containers with reloading for onward carriage uncertain, Northport is not taking more vessels than their capacity allows," he added.
