• 
• 

Published on February 13, 2008

Warodom Thamrongthan-yawong, terminal manager for United Thai Shipping, owner and operator of the Unithai Container Terminal, yesterday said the upbeat forecast came after the firm landed a new customer late last year:

MSC, the EU's largest shipping line.

MSC will cover countries served from the EU, Middle East, Australia, South Asia and the US, while Johan Shipping will serve all of Malaysia, he said.

The terminal's existing customers are shipping lines, such as China's STX, South Korea's Sonokor, Hong Kong's C&L and Vietnam's Hanjin.

Due to congestion at Klong Toei Port, operated by the Port of Authority of Thailand, some business there has spilled over to nearby ports owned and operated by companies, Warodom said.

At nearly full handing capacity of 150,000 20-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) containers a year, the Unithai Container Terminal has been searching for more land nearby to rent to expand its container yard.

"The port's handling utilisation is now 70,000 TEUs. But, if we count the increased volume of our new customer, that will drive up the company's container throughput 70 per cent to 120,000 TEUs," he said.

Its present terminal cannot be expanded, he said.

The Unithai Container Terminal is located on 36 rai of land in Samut Prakan province, a highly industrialised area east of Bangkok. Its terminal site is 60,000 square metres, with a berth length of 202 metres and maximum draft alongside of 8.5 metres. The terminal has an annual container-handling capacity of 3,600 TEUs.

Warodom expects the total container throughput at Chao Phya ports to increase 5 per cent to 1.75 million TEUs, of which more than 75 per cent is handled by state-run Klong Toei Port.

"Unithai is confident of growth, because it's located in a prime area where it can be connected quickly from Bangkok's northern and western industrial zones by the newly completed 22-kilometre Southern Ring Road," he said.

The port also provides rates for ship-owners and container operators that are about Bt200 per TEU container cheaper than those quoted by Klong Toei Port, Warodom said.

The fuel surcharge at the terminal is now Bt20 per TEU container and is expected to increase Bt4 to Bt5 over the next two months, he added.

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation