KUALA LUMPUR: Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, a member of MMC Group, handled 11.405 million freight weight tonnes (FWTs) of conventional cargo in 2023, breaking a record it set in 2022 by 2.6 per cent.
It handled 11.115 million FWTs in 2022.
Its achievement was driven by a significant increase in break bulk commodities, which registered a growth of 9.5 per cent compared to the previous year, as well as increases in the dry bulk and liquid bulk segments.
In the Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) segment, the company also witnessed a significant increase in the handling of electric vehicle (EV) cars in 2023, resulting from the government's policies of promoting electric vehicles.
Northport's success in 2023 came in spite of tough challenges as the world experienced slow economic recovery from major trading countries and the global trade uncertainty, especially during the first half of the year.
As for conventional cargo operations, the company faced additional challenges during the rainy season especially in the last quarter of the year.
Convetional cargo operations are typically halted during rainfall, which made the record-breaking accomplishment an even more remarkable achievement
Its chief executive officer Datuk Azman Shah Mohd Yusof said Northport also recorded the highest ever monthly conventional throughput in the month of October by clocking 1.129 million FWTs, surpassing its previous best of 1.078 million FWTs set in May 2022.
"What we lack in terms of land area, we made up for it through higher productivity and process improvements. "This success holds special significance for Northport, particularly as it coincided with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of port operations at the North Port terminal on December 27, 2023," he said.