| Azlan Othman |
THE Sultanate’s stable political environment, peaceful climate and a well-educated, multi-lingual population are the main driving factors in luring foreign investors, highlighted Lorne Lei, the General Manager of Amann Shipping Sdn Bhd, in a recent interview with the Weekend Bulletin.
“Brunei has the potential to become the regional hub within the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region,” he said.
“In order to achieve that, we need to develop our trans-shipment. Amann Shipping can open the sub-feeder lines within this region, from Brunei to the Philippines, or to East Malaysia or to Indonesia. It will increase the cargo volume transit at Muara Port.
“Muara Port needs to be further developed into a regional hub. We would love to see better rates in shipping prices, such as storage fees and other tariffs. Forwarders also need to reduce handling charges, so that total exports and imports can be reduced. In this market, we need to support each other in order to survive this business.”
Amann Shipping is the operating company of Marzuq Holdings Limited (Marzuq), a joint venture company between the Ministry of Finance’s Strategic Development Capital and Go-Wide Shipping Holding Limited from Hong Kong, which was incorporated in May 2014.
“The purpose of establishing Amann, which is based at the Brunei Malay Teachers Association (PGGMB) building in the capital, is to lower the logistics costs, both on exports and imports,” Lei explained.
“The logistics costs must be lowered to facilitate foreign direct investments (FDIs) to the country, and as part of the country’s economic diversification efforts.
The General Manager of Amann Shipping Sdn Bhd, Lorne Lei. – AZLAN OTHMAN
“It is also for the future of our national food security, as goods in Brunei are mostly imported. We must have our shipping lines for our own food importation,” he added.
“Asean is the business centre of the world, and a very important place. We are the feeder lines within Southeast Asia, which offers a good opportunity, as Amann Shipping has smaller vessels and is able to access smaller ports within the region.
“We are thinking of making shipping lines from China to Muara Port to transport food, cargo and household items, and then transporting them to Indonesia, the Philippines and so on.”
Lei also noted that Amann Shipping has three operation entities: Amann Shipping Container Lines, which has a head office in Brunei; Amann Shipping in Hong Kong, which is doing dry bulk; and Amann Shipping Management, which focuses on technical support.
“Amann Shipping is not only focusing on containers, but also on dry bulk,” he said.
“We are the only one that owns five vessels – three for dry bulk and two container vessels, namely Padian 1 and Padian 2. We will develop our fleet in the future, as the shipping market is a bit crowded these days.”
When asked about future challenges or setbacks, Lei answered, “The cargo volume at Muara Port is not as large as in other countries – to operate from China to Brunei, for instance.
“What’s more, in order to berth a vessel at an anchorage, you have to pay for daily costs, such as spare parts, bunkers, maintenance, payments for the crew, which are fixed costs.
“Another challenge is competition from the Sabah and Sarawak ports, judging by their bigger population and consumption compared to Brunei.
“They have more cargo volumes. We need to work with port operators like Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group Co Ltd, for instance, which has three ports in Guangxi, Kuantan and Muara.
“We can link with Guangxi and Kuantan. Guangxi Beibu has local resources with big forwarders, exporters and manufacturers, which can encourage them to export their products to Brunei.
When asked to comment on the current global shipping industry as a whole, Lei said that the shipping market is still in the recovery status.
“It’s like steel in the sea that needs to rebalance.
“The problem is still demand and supply, with the supply at present being more than the demand. Luckily, oil prices are low, but operational costs such as crew are now higher.”
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