PORT KLANG: The move to reduce the free storage period for containers at Port Klang from the current five days to three days has been postponed to Jan 1 next year.
Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said the move aimed at boosting Port Klang’s image as a world-class port was gazetted by the Cabinet in August last year and was supposed to be implemented on July 1.
He said PKA decided to make sure that the shipping industry and all the related government agencies had completed their new standard operating procedures (SOPs) before its implementation.
“We are also looking at costs that might rise when the shipping community is forced to fork out money for extra storage days, especially now that prices in other areas are also rising,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
PKA general manager Lim Thean Shiang said the authority would form a committee comprising members from associations representing manufacturers, hauliers, forwarders and shippers to help them work on their SOPs so that they would be ready for the Jan 1 implementation.
Lim , who is also the newly-appointed executive chairman of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), vowed to restructure the packages offered in order to make it more inviting to investors.
He said he had no intention of spending any more money on the project and was eager to start work to make sure business there picked up.
He said although the Government had set the ceiling for the soft loan to develop PKFZ at RM4.6bil, PKA which owns PKFZ, had only used RM4.3bil, adding that no more money would be spent.
He said he did not agree with claims from certain quarters that the PKFZ project was a white elephant.
“We have a major oil company from Dubai that will move into PKFZ on July 1. I have also just come back from a trip to meet investors in Hong Kong and will be heading to Tokyo next week for the same purpose,” he told a press conference yesterday.
