Maersk not worried about PTP expansion capability

Previous reports had speculated that PTP could face difficulties in expanding beyond its phase three plan as the Forest City Project overlaps part of its port concession area.

The massive project, by China firm Country Garden and its Johor state company partner, involves the development of a 2,000ha man-made island.

However Maersk cluster manager for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Dan Lauritzen was quoted as saying that this was not an immediate concern. “From our understanding, PTP will not need to expand that much in the immediate future. In the very far future, there might be certain limitation but for now we and our terminal partner are quite comfortable with the capability and capacity of each other,” he said.

PTP's expansion programme, which was completed in the second quarter, enables it to cater to the new-generation ultra large container vessels, and with the completion of Berth 13 and 14, capacity is expected to grow by 25% to 10.5m teu.

Maersk contributes to around 1,200 vessel calls at PTP per year. “We have been using PTP for more than 10 years as our main transhipment port in Southeast Asia and we remain committed to using the port,” said Lauritzen. PTP is 30% owned by APM Terminals the terminal operating arm of Maersk Line's parent AP Moller Maersk.