Shin Yang Deploys Its Largest Container Vessel

DANUM 68, a 390-twenty equivalent unit (TEU) container ship, one of the largest of its kind to be made in Malaysia made its maiden voyage to Northport, Port Klang, recently.

“Danum 68 is the biggest container ship in our group and is deployed in the domestic trade linking Miri Port, Port Klang, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.” said Capt Ting Hien Liong, general manager of Shin Yang Shipping Group, which owns the vessel.

He said the deployment of the bigger ship to serve the trade between ports in Sabah/Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia is a reflection of the increasing volume trade between the two regions in the country.

Box volume handled by Shin Yang at Northport has grown tremendously from well below 10,000 TEUs in 2003 to close 40,000 TEUs last year, an average growth of 74 per cent over the last four years, Capt Ting said.

Cargoes moved consist generally of fast-moving consumer goods, dangerous cargoes and reefer cargoes.

“The launching of Danum 68 is part of our fleet expansion programme in response to the growing demand. As the demand picks up, the company will be adding more container ships in the domestic trade in line with the company’s goal to cover all Sarawak and Sabah ports in the near future,” he said.

Plans are in the pipeline to expand vessel carrying capacity to 400-500 TEUs from the present average of 150-250 TEUs, said Capt Ting.

Speaking at a ceremony at Northport to mark the maiden voyage of Danum 68, Capt Ting said five years ago Shin Yang operated with only two container ships.

“Today the company is well established in the domestic trade with six container ships with 150-390 TEUs carrying capacity. We were deploying an average of 14 ship calls per month at Northport in 2006 compared to merely five ship calls in 2003,” he said.

Capt Ting also said Danum 68 was built at its own shipbuilding subsidiary, Shin Yang Shipbuilding Sdn Bhd.

“Our shipyard is able to design and build various types of vessels to suit our shipping requirements. All repairs and maintenance jobs are done at our shipyard in Sarawak and this minimises the downtime of the fleet,” he said.

Shin Yang Line has four weekly direct sailings from Northport to seven key ports in East Malaysia – Miri, Bintulu, Sibu, Sandakan, Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

Hock Leong Shipping is Shin Yang’s agent in Port Klang.

Capt Ting also stressed that Shin Yang is the only player in the domestic trade which offers direct connections between Port Klang and Miri Port in Sarawak with the shortest transit time of four days.

“Generally major players in the domestic trade offer wider port coverage in a single string. But we at Shin Yang believe in fewer but more direct port calls for each string to ensure faster transit time. In fact all our full rotation of the existing four services shows that our services link a maximum of three ports directly. This has made it possible for us to offer shortest transit times between specified ports,” said Capt Ting.

In the international route, Shin Yang operates a total of 12 ocean liners having twice weekly services to Japan from Miri under Shinline Sdn Bhd and Thailine Sdn Bhd. The vessels offer extensive connectivity to various ports in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Papua New Guinea transporting various types of general cargoes including machineries, timber and steel products.

(c) 2007 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.