KOTA KINABALU: The President of the Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC) Datuk Michael Lui said that previously each transport truck could load one container at the Sepanggar Bay Container Terminal in 1 to 2 hours, with an average of five containers loaded per day, but now it takes 3 to 4 hours to load one!
Hundreds of containers are waiting to be loaded, which seriously disrupts ports operations. He called on Sabah Ports Berhad and DP World Sabah Berhad to postpone the implementation of the container berthing period that will be reduced from 8 days to 5 days on July 15.
At the same time, SUCCC requested that demurrage charges, removal charges, and removal surcharges should not be implemented hastily in July, and the authorities should postpone the implementation until the end of October this year.
The relevant proposals were agreed on the spot by Sabah Ports Berhad and DP World Sabah Berhad to reflect to the senior management.
Michael led the Logistics and Transportation sub-committee to pay a courtesy visit to Sabah Ports and service contractor DP World S/B, and was received by Managing Director Datuk Ng Kiat Min and Shafu Anbas of DP World Sabah.
Michael said the congestion that affected the normal operation of the Sepangar Bay containers port should be resolved as soon as possible without any further delay.
“We agree that all stakeholders, including Sabah Ports Co., Ltd., service contractor DP World Sabah, shipping companies, freight forwarders, transport operators and business enterprises, can only be resolved through full cooperation,” said Michael.
Michael, who is also the president of KKCCCI also mentioned that the total port throughput increased to 28.9 million tonnes in 2024, and the container volume increased by 17.2% to 501,944 TEUs, which is a positive development trend. The authorities should take more proactive measures to strengthen the improvement and take short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to solve the problem through DP World Sabah who operate the Sepangar since September 2024, to prevent the problem from further deteriorating.
In addition to affecting port operations and services, it also severely hit traders and business operations and brought losses.
Michael said: “The root cause of the problem faced by the Sepanggar Bay is the lack of area spaces, and the extension project funded by the federal government has been completed by 26%, we therefore call on the federal government to speed up the allocation so that the relevant projects can be completed as soon as possible.”
Michael also reiterated that all parties involved should strengthen the operations and sustainable development of Sepanggar Bay. He said: “The inefficiency of the Sepanggar Port not only affects import and export goods, but also the business, causing severe economic challenges to the region and the people of Sabah! I am indeed very impressed with the implementation of vehicle booking system by DP World to minimise the congestion. We must work together to strengthen and deepen measures to increase the utilization rate of the port so as to improve the efficiency and productivity of port operations.”
