BPort ... Apr 09

It is aiming to reduce its dependency on liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to 60% of its total operating revenue in the next five years.

Currently, LNG revenue contributes 78% of the company’s total operating revenue. Bintulu Port would only further develop LNG facilities if such a need arose. To realise this, the group will enhance existing facilities as well as develop new facilities such as refurbishment of the multipurpose terminal and development of 19.1ha for operation buildings and yard.

The company planned to expand its container terminal (which includes stacking yard, additional berths and container freight station), develop an additional berth for the edible oil terminal, oil and gas terminal and break bulk facilities (which comprise 500m berths, warehouse and storage yard). The estimated cost of these project is about RM600 million.

The company operates via two wholly owned subsidiaries Bintulu Port Sdn Bhd (BPSB) and Biport Bulkers Sdn Bhd (BBSB).

For BPSB, LNG remains the major contributor with 56.05% of the cargo throughput, followed by containerised cargo 10.64%, crude oil 9.98% and palm oil products 4.80%. Petroleum products, logs, plywood, sawn timber, urea and liquefied petroleum gas contribute the balance.

BBSB, which specialises in providing storage and bulking services, recorded a 292% rise in the handling of palm oil products to 1.53 million tonnes in 2008 from 388,976 tonnes in 2007.

The company attributed the strong performance to the utilisation of its facilities by two major customers with effect from April 2008.

Financial Results …

For FY08, its net profit rose 11% to RM150.61 million from RM135.64 million in the previous year while revenue increased 7.57% to RM448.77 million from RM417.17 million. Earnings per share climbed to 37.65 sen from 33.91 sen.