Southpoint, Malayasia is a port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 in Malaysia. Called Port Swettenham under British rule, it was the only port in the area and was administered by Malayan Railways Limited

Keretapi Tanah Melayu

Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad or Malayan Railways Limited is the main rail operator in Peninsular Malaysia. The railway system dates back to the British colonial era, when it was first built to transport tin...

. Today Southpoint has undergone massive rehabilitation and offers a range of facilities and services for the handling of a variety of cargo

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

es; it is now one of three ports in the area (see Port Klang

Port Klang

Port Klang is a town and the main gateway by sea into Malaysia. Colonially known as Port Swettenham, it is also the location of the largest and busiest port in the country. As such, its economic progress has been greatly influenced by the port activities in its area...

 and Northport), and has been administered by the Port Klang Authority

Port Klang Authority

Port Klang Authority is a government agency of Malaysia that facilitates, regulates and owns the country's most important port, Port Klang, on the Indian Ocean coast near the capital, Kuala Lumpur...

 since 1963.

History

The history of Port Klang (now the most important port in Malaysia) began more than 100 years ago at Southpoint, then a small railway port that was known as Port Swettenham. For many years it was the national gateway, offering a wide range of port facilities and services and handling all cargo types such as general, breakbulk

Break bulk cargo

In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...

 and liquid bulk.

The demand for port facilities at Port Klang, consistent with the growth of the economy in the seventies, and the advent of containerization, saw the development of Northport eclipsing the role of Southpoint. Southpoint became a home only to small coastal ships, tugs

TUGS

TUGS is a British children's television series, first broadcast in 1988. It was created by the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton. The series dealt with the adventures of two anthropomorphized tugboat fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who...

, barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

s, fishing crafts and inter-island ferries.

The Selangor Polo Club was founded in Port Swettenham in 1902 but it moved to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

 in 1911.

Major efforts have now been initiated by Northport ( Malaysia) Bhd, which owns and operates Southport, to revitalize the port. Southpoint is rapidly emerging into a regional conventional transshipment hub.

The Port Today

Southpoint caters to ships serving the short-sea trades in the region. It also has facilities for the handling of liquid bulk cargo, especially palm oil

Palm oil

Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...

 and rubber latex

Latex

Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...

, as well as dry bulk cargo. Southpoint also handles cargo such as vehicles and machineries.

Designated as a 'Free Commercial Zone' in February 2004, Southpoint offers itself as a customs-free cargo consolidation centre for re-shipment of cargoes shipped in conventional form from neighbouring and riverine ports.

Southpoint has eight berths

Berth (moorings)

A berth is a location in a port or harbour used specifically for mooring vessels while not at sea.-Locations in a port:Berth is the term used in ports and harbors to define a specific location where a vessel may be berthed, usually for the purposes of loading and unloading.Most berths will be...

 (from Berth 1 to Berth 7A). The first four berths have a depth between 9 m and 10.5 m to cater for ocean-going vessels up to 40,000 displacement tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

s. Berths 5 to 7A draw depths of about 6m and can accommodate coastal ships of up to 6,000 displacement tonnes.

Other facilities include: eight warehouses, a container yard and a fully equipped multipurpose yard with a total space of 35,000 sq.metres that serves as freight station for consolidation of conventional cargo into containers. Containers from Southpoint can be moved across to the container terminals at Northport to secure mainline connections to worldwide ports.

Significant upgrading and refurbishing of the facilities and services have been carried to meet the demands of the trade. Since the port facility at Southpoint has traditionally served as a coastal terminal to handle the trade between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah

Sabah

Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south...

/Sarawak

Sarawak

Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...

, a major focus of the re-development of the terminal is to serve the short-sea trade.

There are now a number of ship operators and barges mounting regular services to and from river ports in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Sabah, Sarawak, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

Southpoint has an average of 120 barge ship calls per month. In addition, Southpoint has five break bulk berths. The 546 meter terminal is capable of accommodating bulkers ranging from to .

There are regular sailings to more than 11 major ports in Indonesia: Banjarmasin, Belawan, Jambi, Makasar, Palembang, Dumai, Bitung, Tanjung Balai, Pekan Baru, Buatanand Semarang. Cargo handling consolidation activities are also expected to link up with more than 20 minor ports around the Indonesian archipelago.

Southpoint also offers dedicated facilities for containerized cargo, which can be packed, unpacked and stored, for distribution via Northport's Container Terminal 1, 2 and 3 for worldwide connections.

Southpoint is positioned to play a niche role in the expanding intra-ASEAN trade, especially to exploit the "trade creation" effects following the entry of AFTA.