Kota Kinabalu, Saturday, 3 January 2026
The Sandakan business community can rely on the container port at Lahad Datu for its transport of goods without having to resort to the ports at Tawau and Kota Kinabalu (Sepanggar)which are very much farther away. In any case, as reported, the clearance of containers at the Tawau and Sepanggar ports also faces long delays.
The frustration and anger expressed by the Sandakan Forwarding Association in today’s media is completely understandable because shipping and port clearance delays are costly as they delay payments and affect the cash flows of businesses.
Lahad Datu is already hub for the East Coast shipping
The container port at Lahad Datu has proven its efficiency and speed when it handled more than 230 containers for the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for Sabah Electricity last year (2025).
I urge Sandakan business people, especially shipping agents and forwarders, to quickly engage with the relevant ports officials at Lahad Datu because Lahad Datu is already growing as a hub for shipping cargo in the east coast of Sabah. As for fertilisers, Lahad Datu district is one of the biggest clusters in the whole of Malaysia.
Datuk Yong Teck Lee
Ex-Chief Minister