KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): Westports Holdings Bhd saw a marginal drop in its net profit for the third financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) on lower container throughput and higher fuel cost compared to lower fuel prices in 3QFY16.

Its net profit for 3QFY17 was down 0.14% to RM150.82 million, from RM151.03 million in 3QFY16, the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

Revenue for 3QFY17 came in 3.8% higher at RM492.28million from RM474.41 million a year ago.

For the nine months period ended Sept 30, 2017 (9MFY17) Westports reported an 8.6% drop in its net profit to RM440.53 million from RM481.98 million a year ago, as a result of lower container throughput and higher fuel cost and lower fuel price.

Revenue for 9MFY17 increased by 3.6% to RM1.51 billion from RM1.46 billion in the same period last year.

In a separate statement, Westports said that its container operations handled a total throughput of 6.8 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) during the 9-month period ended  September 30, 2017.

Gateway containers, which reflected favourable domestic economic activities growth, increased by 8% over the previous corresponding period, it said.

Westports chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said that the container shipping industry has just gone through unprecedented recalibration and realignment processes which affected almost all major liners.

“At Westports, we now serve as one of the South East Asia transshipment hubs for Ocean Alliance and also as a port of call for a service under THE Alliance. 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, Gnanalingam said that the construction work at Container Terminal 8 (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. 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,” he said.

At 12.30 pm Westports shares fell 3 sen or 0.8% to RM3.71, with 271,700 shares traded.