Asia/Pacific News
New Malaysia Bunkering Op Aims to be "Cheaper and Time-Saving Alternative to Singapore"
Malaysian supplier GF Offshore Sdn Bhd (GF) is set to expand its bunkering operations to Lumut Port on the West Coast of the country.
GF will be the first and only supplier at the port, and has its sights set firmly on taking volume from nearby Singapore.
The supplier says it has two main clients, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Vale, and is eyeing an aggressive growth plan that targets initial sales of 70,000 tonnes for the three months to August 31, local media Star Online reports.
After that, chief executive officer Datuk Seri Mahendran Chelladorai says between 50,000 and 100,000 tonnes of floating storage will be brought to the port, lifting annual volumes to "a conservative 1.2 million tonnes" and then double that over the following two years.
"We have anchored GF's growth trajectory with two blue-chip companies. We will also be servicing vessels from other local and international corporations at Lumut Port. And we also want to capture market share of vessels traversing the Straits of Malacca by promoting Lumut Port as a cheaper and time-saving alternative to Singapore," Chelladorai was quoted by local media as saying at a press conference yesterday.
Product will come from "usual" sources, including BP, Sinopec and PetroSummit.
Singapore is by far the world's largest bunkering port with annual volumes of 50 million tonnes per year.
"If we can do 5% of that amount, it is already 2.5 million. And from this volume we can pull our partners together to utilise everybody's excess capacity," Star quoted GF chief financial officer Loke Chow Wing as saying.
