The port operator views the unprecedented realignment of new global alliance of shipping lines and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global shipping industry for pulling down Westports' container throughput since the second quarter of this year.
In the first nine months of financial year 2017 Westports recorded a significant reduction in container throughput by 8 per cent to 6.8 million TEU. While local container throughput has risen by nearly 8 per cent in first month of the year, the group's transshipment segment registered a fall of 13 per cent.
The group is anticipating its container throughput to fall by 7 per cent to 12 per cent year on year in 2017. Last year, Westports accounted for 76 per cent of the total containers that were handled at Port Klang and 18 per cent of all volume passing through the Straits of Malacca.
The lower performance of Westports' transshipment segment has hit its financials, with its first nine months of 2017 bottom line declining by nearly 9 per per cent year on year to MYR440.53 million (US$107 million), The Star Online of Malaysia reported.
Its operational revenue was also slightly down by 4 per per cent year on year to MYR1.28billion, as compared to MYR1.34 billion a year earlier.
Westports chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam is unperturbed by the port operator's recent decline in container volume as he remains focused on reversing the current situation.
"The ongoing adjustments and recalibration in 2017, following the alliance changes and M&A within the liner industry which affected some of our key clients, are contributing to our lower throughput in 2017.
"However, after these adjustments have taken place, we would expect 2018 to be a year of growth again," he says in an email interview with StarBizWeek.
In the first nine months of financial year 2017 Westports recorded a significant reduction in container throughput by 8 per cent to 6.8 million TEU. While local container throughput has risen by nearly 8 per cent in first month of the year, the group's transshipment segment registered a fall of 13 per cent.
The group is anticipating its container throughput to fall by 7 per cent to 12 per cent year on year in 2017. Last year, Westports accounted for 76 per cent of the total containers that were handled at Port Klang and 18 per cent of all volume passing through the Straits of Malacca.
The lower performance of Westports' transshipment segment has hit its financials, with its first nine months of 2017 bottom line declining by nearly 9 per per cent year on year to MYR440.53 million (US$107 million), The Star Online of Malaysia reported.
Its operational revenue was also slightly down by 4 per per cent year on year to MYR1.28billion, as compared to MYR1.34 billion a year earlier.
Westports chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam is unperturbed by the port operator's recent decline in container volume as he remains focused on reversing the current situation.
"The ongoing adjustments and recalibration in 2017, following the alliance changes and M&A within the liner industry which affected some of our key clients, are contributing to our lower throughput in 2017.
"However, after these adjustments have taken place, we would expect 2018 to be a year of growth again," he says in an email interview with StarBizWeek.