This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 29, 2016.

Kuala Lumpur: Westports Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16), jumped 42% to RM171.1 million from RM120.2 million in the corresponding period thanks to record throughput.

The port operator achieved another milestone by handling throughput of 2.41 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the period under review.

The higher profit growth was mainly driven by the one-off gain from investment in securities, revision in container tariff and lower fuel cost. Excluding the one-off gain, Westports’ profit before tax growth was at 19%.

The group’s revenue expanded 16.6% to RM464.7 million in 1QFY16 from RM398.7 million in 1QFY15. The container throughput increased 7% from 2.26 million in 1QFY15 to 2.41 million for the period under review. Of the 2.4 million TEUs handled by the container operations in 1QFY16, trans-shipment containers increased to 1.8 million TEUs, with 0.6 million TEUs of gateway containers.

“There is also a possibility of some realignment in the container shipping industry next year. As a terminal operator, Westports’ state-of-the-art facilities currently accommodate the largest 19,000 TEUs container vessels. And to support shipping clients’ requirements further, we have embarked on the Container Terminal 8 (CT8) expansion, which will cost a total of RM1.1 billion,” said Westports chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam in a statement.

“Phase one of CT8 with 300m of wharf will commence operations by the middle of this year. Combined with the additional two units of new state-of-the-art 52m-high ship-to-shore cranes and three units of energy-efficient rubber tyred gantry cranes to our fleet of terminal operating equipment, Westports will continue to be a pre-eminent regional trans-shipment hub while accommodating Malaysia’s growing economic, import and export trading requirements,” he added.