Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 30): Westports Holdings Bhd net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 rose 10.22% to RM120.19 million from RM109.04 million a year earlier, due mainly to increased container throughput growth and improved operational efficiency.

In a filing to the stock exchange today, Westports said revenue for the quarter rose to RM398.72 million from RM363.16 million.

Earnings per share was 3.52 sen compared to 3.20 sen a year earlier.

In a statement today, Westports said its transhipment container volume surged by 20% and this reflects the positive contribution from the Ocean Three Alliance (O3) and other key customers of Westports.

O3 alliance members, CMA CGM, CSCL and UASC, use Westports as their shipping hub in this region.

The port operator said it also extended its record breaking container throughput again by achieving another all-time high by handling 794,600 TEUs in March 2015, exceeding the recent and most previous record of 764,000 TEUs in November 2014.

Gateway’s container volume continued its positive trend as throughput increased by 11% in the 1Q2015.

Meanwhile, conventional throughput also grew by 4% to 2.56 million tonnes.

Westports chief executive officer Ruber Emir Gnanalingam said the year had started on a very positive note as the company achieved a container throughput growth of 17% in the first quarter of 2015.

“To cater for the increasing container volume, we have commenced on our Container Terminal 8 expansion, which phase-one is expected to complete in early 2016 and phase-2 by mid-2017.

“Our container handling capacity will be increased from the current 11 million TEU to 13.5 million TEUs by then,” he said.

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