Malaysia's TNB seeks bid to ship coal from Indonesia, Australia

TENAGA Nasional Bhd (TNB), Malaysia's biggest power producer, has called for a US$32 million tender to ship three million metric tonnes of coal from Australia and Indonesia to Malaysian ports, people who had submitted bids for the job was quoted by Malay Mail as saying Wednesday

The tender will close this month, and is exclusively for Malaysian shipping companies. The winning bidder is expected to start shipping the coal by as early as September next year.

Among the companies which may have bid for the job are Malaysian Bulk Carriers (MBC) Bhd, Nepline Bhd, Malaysian Merchant Marine Bhd and Wawasan Shipping Sdn Bhd, a maritime company partly owned by the family of Tan Sri Frank Tsao Wen King.

In April, MBC ? a shipping firm controlled by billionaire Robert Kuok Hock Nien ? won a three-year TNB contract to ship two million metric tonnes a year to local ports.

Industry players say there is no guarantee that the winning bidder will take up the contract, as a lot will depend on the level of the Baltic Dry Index.

They note that a similar TNB tender in 2002, was not taken up by the winning bidder, a year later because of an upturn in freight rates.

At the start of 2002, the index was at 882 points, while at the start of 2003, the index was at 1,738 points.

The Baltic Dry Index, is a measure of freight rates for different size ships carrying dry bulk cargoes on global trade routes.

The index closed on Monday at 1,769 points, the lowest level since March 2003, on concerns that world capacity of dry bulk ships is set to grow this year to a record 20.6 million deadweight tonnes, a measure of a vessel?s capacity for carrying cargo, fuel and supplies.(*)