PETALING JAYA: Sapangar Bay Container Port (SBCP), which handles most of the container throughput of Sabah, will more than double its handling capacity under the initial phase of an expansion programme.
Suria Capital Holdings Bhd, whose unit Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd has been made the implementing agency for the programme, told Bursa Malaysia that construction work for the first stage would start early next year and be completed by 2019.
The operation area would be expanded to boost the container handling capacity to as much as 1.25 million TEUs (20ft equivalent units) from the current 500,000 TEUs, it said. This involves expanding its berth length from the current 500m to 1.2km and stacking area from 15ha to 60ha. “Currently, Sapangar Bay Container Port handles an average of 300,000 TEUs a year, 70% of the total container throughput of Sabah.
“The growth has been on the uptrend at about 5% to 6% annually since the privatisation exercise,” Suria Capital said. For the SBCP expansion programme, the Government has allocated RM800mil under the 11th Malaysia Plan.
Funding under the first rolling plan would be staggered over two years (2016-2017), said Suria Capital. Under the arrangement, RM7mil is to be used within the first year of implementation and RM365mil in 2017.
Suria Capital noted that Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, during his visit to port on Monday, had announced that a masterplan would be prepared this year to upgrade and expand the port’s infrastructure to allow main line operators. SBCP was completed in 2006 after the privatisation of Sabah Ports in 2003.
Under the privatisation agreement signed on Sept 23, 2003, by Suria Capital, Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd, the Sabah state government and Sabah Ports Authority, Sabah Ports Sdn Bhd was appointed to take over the operation and maintenance of the existing seven ports and SBCP under the jurisdiction of Sabah Ports Authority with a concession period of 30 years.
