MSC Gulsun Departs Port of Tanjung Pelepas with Record-Breaking 19,574 TEUs

Photo courtesy Port of Tanjung Pelepas

The Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Malaysia has broken its own record for containership utilization after the MSC Gulsun, the largest container ship in the world, departed with 19,574 TEUs loaded on board.

The milestone is now the third time PTP has set the world record for vessel utilization and the first port in the world to set back-to-back records.

The Port of Tanjung Pelepas is a joint venture between MMC Group and APM Terminals. With capacity to handle up to 12.5 million TEUs annually, it is one of the most advanced container terminals in the world. The port is situated on the eastern side of the mouth of the Pulai River in South-West Johor near confluence of some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. PTP has 14 linear berths totaling over 5km in length, and is equipped with 58 Super Post Panamax cranes, 16 of which have a 24-box outreach. The cranes also have twin-lift capability. PTP’s current average berth productivity for mainliner vessels stands at 100 moves per hour minimum.

Helping the port set the new record, PTP has now gone live with the Navis N4 terminal operating system, which provides improved performance and scalability.

“The implementation of Navis N4 has been years in planning and preparation,” said Simon Doughty, a Vice President at Navis, which supplied the system. “With the support of teams from PTP, Navis, MMC, APM Terminals and other vendors, N4 was successfully implemented on time and with no unplanned disruption to daily port operations.”

“I have personally been involved in many ‘go lives’, but never one of this size and scale and also never one that has gone so well in so many areas, including change management, adoption of new processes and frontline technology,” commented Joe Schofield, PTP’s Chief Operating Officer.

A video of the record-setting call by the MSC Gulsun is below: