Westports Nine-Month Container Volumes Down

Westports Malaysian port operator Westports Holdings Berhad saw its container volumes drop in the nine-month period ended September 30, mainly due to the industrys recent mergers and acquisitions. Container operations handled a total throughput of 6.8 million TEU during the nine-month period, dropping by 8 percent from a total of 7.4 million TEU handled in the same period a year earlier, driven by a drop in containers on the Asia-Europe and Asia-Africa trades. The groups third quarter volumes also fell by 14 percent to 2.14 million TEU. The container shipping industry has just gone through an unprecedented recalibration and realignment processes which affected almost all major liners, Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, the Chief Executive Officer of Westports, said. In the first nine months of 2017 the group achieved an operational revenue of MYR 1.28 billion, driven by the container operations. Compared to the first nine months of 2016, the operational revenue decreased by 4 percent from MYR 1.33 billion. Similarly, the companys profit for the period was down by 9 percent to MYR 440.5 million from MYR 481.9 million. For the third quarter ended September 30, the companys operational revenue stood at MYR 421.1 million, representing a decrease of 6 percent compared to MYR 449.8 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier, while the profit for the quarter remained flat at MYR 150.8 million. At Westports, we now serve as one of the South East Asia transshipment hubs for Ocean Alliance and also as a port of call for a service under THE Alliance. The industrys recent mergers and acquisitions have affected our container volume handled, especially of transshipment boxes, and Westports have now transitioned successfully towards serving new services under Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance, Gnanalingam added. *MYR 1 = USD 0.24