Deep Sea Wharf

The first and the largest deep sea wharf in northern Peninsular Malaysia is in Butterworth. Today, another new port is located north of this wharf called North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) is larger than this deep sea wharf.

This deep sea wharf is situated south of the ferry terminal.

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November 24, 2011

PPSB awaiting wharf funds
By S. ARULLDAS
Star

BUTTERWORTH: Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB) is still awaiting the RM300mil allocation from the Finance Ministry to deepen the three wharves on the mainland.

Its chief executive officer and managing director Datuk Ahmad Ibnihajar said work to dredge the Bulk Cargo Wharf in Prai, Deep Water Wharf in Bagan Dalam and North Butterworth Container Terminal could only begin after the money was released.

“The ongoing delay in dredging the wharves has affected our business as our clients, especially in southern Thailand, are using other means to transport their cargo to Klang and Singapore,” he said after presenting long service and excellent service awards to about 200 PPSB employees at a hotel in Prai yesterday.

Ahmad had in May blamed the “little Napoleons” in the ministry for being a stumbling block to the release of the funds, which was supposed to be done last year.

He said it would take 18 months to complete the dredging works.

By then, he said PPSB would lose billions of ringgit in revenue if the delay was prolonged.

He claimed PPSB would lose between RM50mil and RM60mil a year from a major shipping company that wanted to transport steel from a plant in Prai to a port in India.

The wharves, which are currently 12m-deep, need to be 15m to allow bigger vessels to berth.

Ahmad said the completion of the Ipoh-Padang Besar electrified double-tracking railway project would jeopardise PPSB’s business as shipping agents would send their cargo to their destinations in the south via train.