KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia must address bottlenecks across its entire maritime logistics and supply chain ecosystem or risk constraining its ability to capture growing trade flows into Asean, industry experts said.

MTT Shipping and Logistics Bhd managing director and co-founder Ooi Lean Hin said Asean has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of shifting global trade patterns, as companies realign supply chains and China diversifies its markets beyond the West.

But rising cargo volumes will place increasing pressure not only on Malaysia's ports, but also on the wider network supporting them, including trucking and drayage services.

Ooi said capacity expansion must therefore go beyond building larger ports and focus on weaknesses throughout the logistics chain.

To accommodate the anticipated growth in cargo volumes, he said the Malaysian government needs to assess the whole ecosystem where problems arise at ports or drayage services.

"You need to build capacity at ports. But there is also a need to assess the trucking industry where operators are looking to exit rather than expand.

"You have an industry where the capacity is shrinking because turnaround is not good; there is congestion leading to the ports, driver shortages and other challenges.

"That is the reality that we are faced with, an ecosystem that cannot support growth because there's a lack of investments," he said during a panel discussion at Logistics Symposium 2026 here on Wednesday.

Ooi said that capacity building is a crucial aspect in the industry that needs to be addressed.

"Why are we not having enough capacity to meet the future growth? There's no point having just a port capacity be expanded if the entire ecosystem cannot support it," he added.

Meanwhile, Kuantan Port chief commercial officer Mazlim Husin said the port is ready to build more capacity in the future to meet rising demand.

The port currently has two basins, where the first one is already full, while the second basin has a draft of about 60 metres.

"In this second basin, we have capacity to build in the future in terms of building more yachts, more boats and more basins. I also believe that our ports would have to increase our capacity in the future," he said.

Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd chief executive officer and executive director Vijaya Kumar Puspowanam said that intra-Asia trade is growing despite the Middle East war.

"In that regard, we are confident in adding capacity. Especially at the port, we have to be willing to take the risk faster and more confidently because ports are the biggest chokepoint.

"If there is continuous demand, and if we continue hitting the trigger points of 80 per cent utilisation, we will be confidently building capacity, at least for the next 15 years," he said.

Westports is developing Westports 2, which will double its annual handling capacity from 14 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to 28 million.

He added that lagging is also a problem, especially at Port Klang, where a single maintenance work would lead to massive congestion.

He said that the company did not have enough land previously and had approached the government in 2019 to add capacity.

In 2023, the company secured approval from the government to expand Westports 2.

"For the next coming decade, we are confident that we will continue to support that kind of capacity building," he said.