KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 13): Malaysia has not been spared by the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on supply chains worldwide, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the global supply chain disruptions were expected to last until at least next year.

On his Facebook page on Wednesday, Wee noted that Malaysia had to implement several port clearing exercises last year and in 2021 to prevent congestion at ports nationwide, especially at Port Klang, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Johor Port and Penang Port.

"During the Movement Control Orders which placed restrictions on vehicle movement throughout the country, it was crucial for the Transport Ministry to work with the ports and other related agencies to make sure that goods, essential and even non-essential, were able to move and get to households and businesses.

"Even our efforts sometimes meant that vessels had longer-than-usual turnaround times to unload their holds, and containers and cargo were piling up in the container yards and warehouses. At one point, Port Klang's utilisation reached about 88% of its total capacity," he said.

Wee said on Sept 12 he announced that all loading and unloading activities for import and export purposes were allowed to operate 24 hours a day throughout the week including for non-essential items, with strict compliance to National Security Council's standard operating procedures.

"This has done much to reduce the port congestion throughout the country. Despite this, Malaysia is still holding its own in terms of efficiency rankings in port performance as reported by Bloomberg which quoted global investment bank RBC Capital Markets's study on global port container discharge times and congestion," he added.

According to RBC, 77% of the world's ports were experiencing abnormally long times of turnaround.

However, it noted that Port Klang had the most efficient operation among 22 of the world's biggest and most prominent ports worldwide, handling an average of 131 ships weekly and taking 1.7 days to service each vessel compared with 1.3 days in 2017 to 2019 before the pandemic occurred.