Hinterland connectivity of Malaysian container seaports: Challenges and solutions

Seaport-hinterland connectivity involves having a network containing a collection of transport infrastructure and services enabling containers to be transported to and from seaports. Within the network, the seaport is the central node that connects with other transport nodes in the hinterland. A high level of hinterland connectivity can have a significant impact on a container seaport’s competitiveness. This paper overviews the Malaysian container seaport systems and assesses the seaport-hinterland connectivity from the physical properties’ perspective including transport connections and connected inland freight facilities. The findings reveal that although Malaysia’s major container seaports are connected to the hinterlands through road and rail transport, they are highly dependent on road. These seaports are also connected to inland freight facilities such as dry ports and ICDs, which are positioned as transit points to help connect exporters and importers in the hinterlands to seaports as well as facilitating regional and cross-border trades. This paper found that several issues impact on the quality of hinterland connectivity of Malaysian container seaports, including the existence of an extremely imbalanced modal split, insufficient rail capacity and limited train services, road congestion and space constraints of some inland facilities.