KOTA KINABALU: The cranes in Sepanggar Bay Container Port (SBCP) are back to operating normally, Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd chief operating officer (COO) Mohd Sahid Nawab Khan.
While admitting that there were some congestion at the SBCP, Mohd Sahid explained that it was partly caused by two of the cranes needing repairs.
Speaking to reporters after the Suria Capital Holdings Berhad annual general meeting which was held at SBCP’s training centre in Sepanggar yesterday, Mohd Sahid said that there are two gantry and two mobile cranes that are used in the container port.
“We have two gantry cranes and two mobile cranes and we handle two ships at any one time. There was a short pile-up of vessels the last couple of weeks and among the contributing factors to the situation was the adverse weather.
“The cranes are used 24/7. There was a need to repair one gantry and one mobile crane but operation is back to normal now as all four cranes are functioning. The situation was also compounded by bunching, which is a situation when all the ships arrive at the same time and this caused unavoidable short-term congestion in the port,” he said.
Mohd Sahid was replying to Likas assemblyman Junz Wong’s claim that lack of and broken down equipment had caused congestion at the container port.
“I was told by a few forwarders that the cranes broke down regularly and each time repair could take up to a few weeks as spare parts are not easily available. This has affected efficiency of the port operations. There were even occasions whereby ships had to leave for other ports after waiting for three to four days to offload their containers,” Junz said after visiting SBCP on Wednesday.
The assemblyman also suggested that the government consider a takeover if SPA does not have the capability to upgrade its port facilities, in view of the fact that Sabah relies mainly on sea movement of cargoes without other alternative systems such as railways.
“It was reported online that SPA is investing RM229 million on Sandakan Port and Oil Terminal. What about investments to resolve the current woes of its container terminal in Sepanggar?” Junz said.
According to Mohd Sahid, Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd has invested RM80 million for equipment to complement its existing equipment and there is about RM36 million worth of equipment that it will purchase this year for SBCT alone.
“It is our effort to improve our services,” he said.