Westports CEO Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the group achieved another strong set of results. Container throughput continued to show resilient growth.
KUALA LUMPUR: Westports Holdings Bhd
reported lower net profit of RM121.81mil in the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, impacted by major changes in the global container shipping industry but it expects container volume momentum to increase from now on.
The port owner and operator announced on Wednesday the net profit was down by 18.1% from RM148.82mil a year ago. Its revenue fell by 21.4% to RM394.03mil from RM501.44mil.
Earnings per share were 3.57 sen compared with 4.36 sen. It declared an interim dividend of 5.4 sen a share compared with 6.37 sen a year ago.
In the first half, its net profit fell by 15.2% to RM245.61mil from RM289.71mil in the previous corresponding period.
Group managing director Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said Westports moved 4.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers.
He said Westports achieved the RM245.6mil net profit after making provision for the corporate statutory tax rate, higher depreciation charges and finance costs following the completion of the container terminals (CT) eight and nine expansion in 2017.
During the first half, its revenue declined by 23.8% to RM779.13mil from RM1.022bil.
Ruben said the container shipping industry experienced a major realignment changes in the previous year especially with the formation of new global alliances as well as mergers and acquisitions among the container shipping lines.
“These changes have adversely affected our transhipment volume, but Westports have transitioned successfully towards serving the new services under the Ocean Alliance.
“Based on Westports overall improving container volume momentum, we are at the tail end of establishing a new volume baseline, from which we can establish future growth levels,” he said.
The intra-Asia segment at container operations showed continued favourable momentum with growth of 10%, thus raising the trade lane’s contribution to Westports overall volume to 61%.
For conventional cargoes, Westports handled a total throughput of 5.3 million tonnes with higher volume recorded in the break bulk segment.
On container terminal expansion, Ruben said the completion of CT8 and CT9 in 2017 increased Westports total container handling capacity to 14 million TEUs per annum.
The additional capacity is currently accommodating the largest container vessels of more than 20,000-TEUs that call at Westports.
On tariffs imposed by some major trading nations, Ruben cautioned that: “Global international trade has been the foundation of the world’s unparalleled growth which saw many countries and regions enjoyed unprecedented economic development.
“The tariffs currently imposed could affect global trade flows. However, after some initial dislocations, a new equilibrium would emerge, and trade between nations will still be the preferred paradigm for growth”.
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