Kota kinabalu: Sabah has significant potential to strengthen its trade competitiveness and economic resilience by addressing long-standing logistics and port efficiency challenges, according to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Malaysia (CILTM) Sabah. Its chairman, Daniel Doughty, said improving cargo flow efficiency and reducing vessel waiting times would enhance supply chain reliability, lower business costs, and boost investor confidence, benefiting manufacturers, exporters, importers, and consumers across the state economy.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, productivity and vessel performance data from January 2023 to April 2026 showed that vessel waiting hours and overall port stay durations had risen sharply despite improvements in some berth productivity indicators. Doughty stated that discussions surrounding port congestion in Sabah have often been treated as temporary operational disturbances. He emphasized that this assumption is no longer sustainable and that Sabah is increasingly facing a systemic supply chain stress issue.
Doughty was commenting on the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Sabah branch's criticism that congestion at Sabah ports has become a man-made logistical crisis, with port operations reaching a 'state of paralysis'. FMM Sabah chairman Liaw Hen Kong had reportedly cited severe disruptions to container trucking, vessel omissions, container rollovers, and prolonged gate-in and gate-out delays, while criticizing the 'Congestion Surcharge' and 'General Rate Increase' imposed by feeder operators effective May 7.
Under the surcharge, carrier-owned container shipments to and from Kota Kinabalu will increase by RM500 for a 20-footer and RM1,000 for a 40-footer, while shipper-owned containers will incur charges of US$130 for a 20-footer and US$260 for a 40-footer (US$1=RM3.9). Doughty explained that modern ports are measured not only by crane productivity but by total system flow efficiency, from vessel arrival to cargo evacuation and inland distribution.
He highlighted that domestic liner waiting hours had reached concerning levels in 2024, 2025, and again in 2026, with some periods exceeding 100 hours before berthing. Doughty noted that such delays disrupted shipping schedules, container repositioning, feeder connectivity, crew utilization, fuel efficiency, and fleet deployment planning, with shipping lines eventually recovering costs through higher freight rates, surcharges, and risk premiums.
Doughty pointed out that the Sabah economy absorbs these costs, with consumers paying more, businesses facing higher logistics overheads, and exporters losing competitiveness. He emphasized that port congestion should be viewed as an economic system problem, not just a port operator issue. While gross moves per hour (GMPH) for domestic liner operations had improved in parts of 2024 and 2025, at times exceeding 22 GMPH, congestion continued to worsen, indicating structural weaknesses in the wider logistics ecosystem.
He said ports are closely linked to Customs processes, trucking availability, depot operations, warehouse capacity, importer collection behavior, inland distribution networks, and cargo clearance cycles. Misalignment in these systems results in prolonged container stays in terminal yards, increased yard density, weakened truck turnaround, and the formation of offshore vessel queues, making congestion self-reinforcing.
Doughty noted that prolonged gateway port instability could affect Sabah's food security, construction materials, industrial equipment, retail goods, manufacturing inputs, energy-related cargoes, and export sectors, including palm oil downstream activities, manufacturing, frozen products, agriculture, and project cargo. Investor confidence would also be affected as investors assess the efficiency and predictability of supply chain infrastructure.
He concluded that ports represent the bloodstream of trade and persistent congestion signals operational uncertainty. Doughty emphasized that the congestion data should be treated as an urgent strategic warning for Sabah to pursue coordinated, evidence-based, and system-level logistics reform instead of short-term operational firefighting.