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Malaysia Westports' Q3 earnings flat at US$36m on lower box traffic

WESTPORTS Holdings Bhd recorded a marginal drop in its third quarter net profit that fell 0.14 per cent year on year to MYR150.82 million (US$36.025 million) on 3.8 per cent higher revenue that stood at MYR492.28 million.

In a stock exchange filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group attributed the lower third quarter earnings to lower container throughput and higher fuel cost compared to lower fuel prices during the same quarter in 2016, reported The Edge Markets, Malaysia.

For the first nine months of the year, Westports reported an 8.6 per cent decline in net profit to MYR440.53 million on 3.6 per cent higher revenue at MYR1.51 billion.

In a separate statement, Westports said that its container operations handled a total throughput of 6.8 million TEU from January to September. Gateway containers, which reflected favourable domestic economic growth, rose by eight per cent year on year.

Westports' chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam was quoted as saying: "The industry's 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," he said.

With regards to terminal expansion projects, Mr Gnanalingam said that the construction work at container terminal 8 (CT8) has finished and it has now progressed to CT9.

"With the added wharf and new fleet of terminal operating equipment, Westports' total container handling capacity has increased to 13 million TEU per annum.

"And to further strengthen port Klang as the pre-eminent port for the nation's gateway trade as well as a transshipment hub in the region, the group has received an approval in-principle [from the Malaysian government] to expand the container terminal facilities from CT10 to CT19.

"Westports will now undertake detailed studies and assessments of the proposed expansion," added Mr Gnanalingam.