Five companies tender for RM400mil job in Samalaju Port

KUCHING: Five companies, including four based in Peninsular
Malaysia, have tendered for the Samalaju Port project's breakwater
package estimated at more than RM400mil.
They are MMC Engineering Bhd, TRC Sdn Bhd, Inai Kiara Sdn Bhd, See Yong & Sons Sdn Bhd and Piasau Concrete Sdn Bhd, according to Bintulu Port Holdings Bhd (BPHB) chief executive officer Datuk Mior Ahmad Baiti.
Piasau
Concrete, which is linked to Miri-based diversified Shin Yang group, is
the sole Sarawak-based firm that had submitted tender.
“Two of the bidders have teamed up with foreign partners,” Mior told StarBiz. Tenders for the package called “rubble mount breaking water with concrete armour” closed on May 7.
“The tenders are being evaulated and the contract is expected to be awarded next month.
“Construction work is expected to commence in August and will take 26 months,” he added.
Mior Ahmad said BPHB had allocated RM460mil for the breakwater package.
He
said tender for the the port's next package construction of four
wharves would be out next month. The four wharves are of 250m in length
each.
Mior said the final package involving port administrative
and operation buildings, port equipment, a conveyor belt, access roads
and other facilities would be tendered out in August.
In February, BPHB awarded a RM437mil contract for capital dredging and reclamation package (phase 1) to Integrated Marine Works Sdn Bhd.
Samalaju
Port's interim facilities, comprising two barge berths and one roll-on
roll-off ramps, are expected to be ready by end-2013. These facilities
can handle up to four million tonnes of cargo per annum.
Mior said the port project's various stages of development were progressing as planned.
The
RM1.8bil new port, which is scheduled to be fully operational in 2016,
will serve mainly energy-intensive industries like aluminium and
ferro-alloy smelting plants, in Samalaju Industrial Park and the port
hinterland, particularly for the import of raw materials and export of
finished annum.
By then, the port's cargo handling capacity will be raised to 18 million tonnes per annum.
If necessary, the port could be expanded to increase the annual cargo handling capacity to 30 million tonnes.