Importers and other stakeholders affected by the delay at the Sepanggar Port are urging the port authorities to solve the underlying problem that led to the delay, as they fear it will affect the supply chain and hence, rise in the price of goods.

A member of the Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KKCCCI) and importer, Lewis Fong said that due to the delay which led to congestion at the Sepanggar Port, cargo ships were made to wait a long period to berth at the port.

The problem, he said, started to worsen about a week ago.

“Vessels have to wait sometimes up to five days to berth. Even after berthing, they need another two to three days to unload the containers.

“Due to this congestion, some of the shipping companies decided that instead of waiting for their turns to berth at the Sepanggar Port, they ordered their ships to turn around with their cargo, heading towards Bintulu and unloading the containers there, in order for the ships to go back to Port Klang and load the next batch of cargo,” said Fong.

He added that there had been instances whereby his containers were unloaded in Bintulu, which then had to wait for another vessel to come and ship the cargo to Kota Kinabalu, a process he was told would take up to 10 days.

“Even after that 10 days and the cargo does arrive here, there is still the uncertainty of whether or not the ship will have any window to berth at the Sepanggar Port,” he said.

The delay, said Fong, was causing a lot of uncertainty to shipping companies, importers and stakeholders, and it was feared this would trickle down the supply chain to the consumers.

“Because after all, in Sabah, most of our manufactured goods are imported, be it food, products for daily use, even industrial materials, a lot of it is imported.

“So if you keep delaying, then eventually this problem will trickle down to the consumers. The delay would incur additional costs and the shipping companies will eventually have to pass down these costs to someone else. It will be first us the importers, and eventually, the consumers,” stressed Fong.

Another member of the KKCCCI, Koh Chung Jade, pointed out that while importers would often absorb the additional costs incurred, long term delay and inefficiency on the part of the port would have them pass the costs on to the consumers.

The possible loss that an importer had to bear as a result of the delay was estimated at about RM60,000, said Fong.

“Some of the food products we import have a shelf-life of only 30 days. We estimate about half a month of the whole shipment process is wasted due to the delay. When consumers see food products with only 10 days left on it, they are not going to want to buy it. And we cannot simply incur the additional costs on the prices of goods for consumers to bear. So we have to bear the loss,” he said.

Fong said that the stakeholders felt the problem was something that could have been avoided with better management by the port authorities.

“While we cannot tell the port management what should they do, because after all they are the experts, we just hope that in any problems or disputes, that they will able to take these problems and solve it in a professional manner, or in some other avenues. And not have it affect the normal day-to-day operations at the port,” said Fong.

In the meantime, KKCCCI president Datuk Michael Lui said that the organization was looking at paying a courtesy visit to the port management to assist its members to find a solution to the problem.

“Our role is always to protect the interests of our members. We hope that the Sabah Port Authority will also have a roundtable dialogue (with the stakeholders) to solve this problem as soon as possible,” said Lui.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by The Borneo Post

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