Association of Malaysian Hauliers

MASKARGO has broadened its horizons in the sea-air transhipment business by signing an agreement with Westport to open a new office in Pulau Indah under its I-port programme. 

The Westport facility, which is set to be officially launched later this month, will be the fourth of its kind, with I-port offices already in place in Northport, Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) and Kuantan Port. 

“We already have all the staff, the software and the hardware in place now. All we are waiting for is the final few touches like the setting up of the lines and we will then be ready to operate,” said MASkargo senior manager corporate affairs (cargo) Rosli Md Yasin. 

Using the in-house developed MASGO operating system, which cost MASkargo more then RM20mil to develop and get on-line, I-port is linked to MASkargo offices and customers all around the world. 

“Shipments from places as far off as China are using the I-port facility nowadays,” said Rosli. 

“Besides that we are also handling shipments from countries like Cambodia , Vietnam , Indonesia and India as well.  

“The cargo come in to Malaysia via the ports and are then transported to MASKargo's Advanced Cargo Centre(ACC) at KLIA by road and then by air to Europe, Australasia, Eastern Asia and North America,” he said, explaining how the entire system worked. 

Rosli said that using this unique blend of sea and air transport made the entire transportation operation faster than if it were done totally by water and cheaper by as much as 40% than if it were done totally by air. 

“In fact, we recently had an enquiry from Australia with regards to transporting fruits and vegetables to the Middle East via our I-port programme,” he said. 

The products that most often used the service were mostly garments, machinery parts and liquors.  

In 2003, MASkargo handled about 4million kgs of cargo through I-port, but from January 2004 to August 2004, this figure tripled to 12 million kilogrammes. 

“The crucial elements in ensuring the success of this system is the efficiency of the ports and the flexibility of Malaysian customs,” said Rosli. Currently, I-port has more than 50 customers worldwide.  

Some of I-port's biggest users are companies like Shenker, Nippon Express and Exel. 

MASkargo's latest big project is the sponsorship of the Formula Nippon which was held in Sepang yesterday. 

Rosli said the difference between MASkargo's involvement in Formula Nippon and Formula One was that in F1, freighter brought in all the components for the cars, whereas in Formula Nippon, MASkargo only transported the engines, while the rest of the cars were brought in by freight forwarders, Shenker. 

The engines were brought in two shipments, the first 10 engines arriving on flight MH89 from Narita on Sept 3 while the second shipment consisted of three engines and arrived MH57 from Nagoya on the 11. 

“MASkargo fully sponsored the shipment of the engines, to the tune of around RM350,000. 

“We will also be involved in the MotoGp that will be held in Malaysia in October, transporting the motorcycles from Doha to Kuala Lumpur on Oct 3 and then to Avalon, Melbourne on Oct 11 and finally to Valencia on the Oct 20 and Nov 2. 

“With the development of motorsports activities being given the emphasis by the government, it is only natural for MASkargo being the nation's premier air cargo carrier, to support this project,” said Rosli.

By Marc Lourdes