The timing was appropriate.April Fool’ s Day was the given date when PSA handed back operations of Muara Container Terminal, some 19 years ahead of its 25-year contract expiry date, bringing an abrupt drop in management expertise.
Within six days the port’s two quay cranes broke down,bringing the whole port to a shuddering halt. Ex-staff from PSA were eventually called in hours later and fixed the comparatively simple problem, a power dip. Such occurrences are common and experienced technicians would normally take just 15 minutes to fix this.
Moreover, the loss of PSA’s much vaunted CITOS computer system has seen the port return to the dark days of good old-fashioned paper to shuffle the boxes into the right destinations.
Containerisation out of Brunei has never really taken off; the Brunei port scaling a peak of around 110,000 teu in 2006. Muara Container Terminal is a natural deepwater berth with a 250- metre quay, two cranes and an annual capacity of 220,000 teu.
Officials at PSA remain tightlipped over the falling out with Brunei but in a release tried to put a bright face on the matter, saying: “PSA Muara looks forward to participating in future terminal operating opportunities that may be available once the longer term vision of Muara Port is firmed up.”
