PETALING JAYA: Westports Holdings Bhd
may handle lower container volumes in the first quarter of this year (1Q26), as global port activity is expected to moderate ahead of Chinese New Year.
Despite this quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) volume decline, Westports’ earnings should remain resilient, supported by the second phase of its port tariff hike of 10% that became effective this month, stated Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB Research).
It added that the activity moderation ahead of Chinese New Year would provide a “temporary breather” for global supply chains.
“This pause could allow ports and operators to reset before potential renewed pressures, driven by US restocking and the possible return of Red Sea transits,” it said in a note to clients.
Maybank IB Research has a “buy” call on Westports, with a target price of RM6.73 per share.
After a site visit to Westports, the research house said Westports indicated that strong 4Q25 container throughput was in line with robust intra-Asia container trade volumes.
The data available up to October to November showed an increase of 5% year-on-year (y-o-y), during which volumes outperformed historical trends and reached one of the highest monthly levels last year.
“The stronger-than-expected activity reflected resilient regional demand and ongoing supply chain diversification.
“This, in our view, led to intensified yard operations and contributed to the congestion at Westports observed in late November and December,” it stated.
For the fourth quarter of last year, Westports was expected to be supported by stronger container volumes and elevated yard utilisation.
The research house said yard density peaked by more than 100% in December due to high vessel discharge volumes, despite storage fees rising up to three times (post-grace period) since last July.
Meanwhile, dwell time remained largely stable.
“Furthemore, this combination could support higher q-o-q earnings, with 4Q25 results expected on Jan 30.
“Westports’ results for the first nine months of financial year 2025 accounted for 74% of our forecasts.”
The research house further pointed out that Westports handled 11.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year, which was up 3% y-o-y.
“We were told that traffic build-up started from the end of last November, with yard utilisation peaking at full capacity in December due to higher vessel discharges.“
However, conditions have since eased, with utilisation below 90% (currently more than 10 vessels waiting versus about 50 at the peak).
“Productivity is expected to recover in the coming weeks.
“Management estimates that deferred or temporarily diverted volume during the congestion is at about 50,000 to 100,000 TEUs, highlighting underlying demand exceeding handled throughput.”
