Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said Westports continued to enjoy favourable volume recovery after transitioning successfully to a new baseline and transhipment volume last year.
KUALA LUMPUR: Westports Holdings Bhd
's posted a stronger set of financial results in the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 as it achieved record-breaking container throughput level.
It said on Friday its net profit rose by 36.5% to RM166.31mil from RM121.81mil a year ago. Its revenue rose by 15.3% to RM454.45mil from RM394.03mil.
Its earnings per share rose to 4.88 sen from 3.57 sen. It declared an interim dividend of 6.74 sen compared with 5.4 sen.
For the first half, its net profit rose by 24.6% to RM306.22mil from RM245.61mil. Its revenue increased by 11.6% to RM869.64mil from RM779.12mil.
In a statement, Westports said it handled 5.27 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) of containers during the H1 of 2019.
“The improvement of 17% over the previous corresponding period is partly helped by a lower base in the previous year. Transhipment containers increased to 3.54 million TEUs, whereas gateway volume grew to 1.73 million TEUs.
“On a quarterly basis, Westports achieved a record-breaking container throughput level during the 2nd Quarter of 2019 by handling 2.74 million TEUs, driven by the increase to 1.83 million TEUs for transhipment containers and 900,000 TEUs for gateway boxes,” it said.
Westports said the increased container throughput, combined with the stable cost of sales, contributed to improved profitability.
Its group managing director Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said Westports continued to enjoy favourable volume recovery after transitioning successfully to a new baseline and transhipment volume last year.
“The sustained favourable growth at the intra-Asia segment has also supported the company’s container volume growth of 17%, which is well above the industry’s average for container volume.
“We also set what could be the new world’s record for container terminal productivity by achieving an impressive 801 container moves in one hour during CMA CGM Jean Mermoz’s port of call at Westports. This achievement is a reflection of our teamwork, client-focused approach and excellent terminal facilities at Westports,” he said.
Ruben said Westports was expecting to achieve much higher overall container throughput in 2019 despite very moderate industry’s volume growth rate due to the company’s exposure to the still-buoyant intra-Asia segment as well as the favourable domestic export-oriented sectors.
Westports is also progressing ahead with planning for the multi-billion proposed container terminal expansion as the latter would further strengthen the company and Port Klang’s role as the pre-eminent port for the nation’s gateway trade, he added.
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