Westports CEO Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the container shipping industry has just gone through an unprecedented recalibration and realignment processes which affected almost all major liners.
KUALA LUMPUR: Westports Holdings Bhd
's reported a dip in its third quarter earnings at RM150.82mil due to the lower container throughput and higher fuel costs and it expects a decline due to changes in the container shipping industry.
Earnings fell 0.14% from RM151.03mil a year ago, it said on Friday and anticipated that due to the ongoing changes in the industry, “we expect our container throughput to be lower when compared to the previous year by between 7% and 12%”.
Westport's revenue rose 3.7% to RM492.27mil from RM474.41mil. Earnings per share were at 4.42 sen compared with 4.43 sen.
Operational revenue fell 6% to RM421.2mil mainly due to a reduction in container throughput by 14% to 2.14 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in Q32017.
“Local container throughput recorded growth of 14% and transhipment segment recorded negative growth of 24%,” it said.
Westports said the lower performance on transhipment segment is due to changes in container shipping industry, arising from the formation of new global alliance and reconstituted service offerings and port of calls, as well as mergers and acquisitions. The strong growth in local throughput segment has reduced the impact to operational revenue.
The Group recorded profit before tax (PBT) of RM177.9mil, similar to the PBT a year ago.
“Excluding net reversal of impairment of trade receivable and impairment of property plant and equipment in Q3, 2016, the PBT is reduced by 8%. The reduction in PBT were due to lower container throughput and higher fuel cost as a result of lower fuel price in Q3,2016,” it said.
For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2017, its earnings fell 8.6% to RM440.53mil from RM481.98mil in the previous corresponding period. Its revenue rose 3.6% to RM1.51bil from RM1.46bil.
Container operations handled a total throughput of 6.8 million TEU during the nine-month period ended Sept 30, 2017. Gateway containers, which reflected favourable domestic economic activities growth, increased by 8%.
Container Terminal 8 (CT8) Phase 2 with an additional 300-metre wharf has been completed and has been commissioned into service.
“With the deliveries of new terminal operating equipment, the total terminal’s container handling capacity, from now on, has now been increased to 13 million TEUs per annum,” it said.
Westports CEO Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the container shipping industry has just gone through an unprecedented recalibration and realignment processes which affected almost all major liners.
“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.
On container terminal expansion, Ruben said work at CT8 has been completed 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 TEUs per annum.
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, Westports has received an approval-in-principle to expand the container terminal facilities from CT10 to CT19.
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