This is a sharp drop from the 10% volume growth to just short of 10m teu it posted in 2016. However, the market situation is set to change dramatically this year with two big customers, CMA CGM and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), members of new alliances which come into effect from 1 April .
Longtime Westports key customer French line CMA CGM, which took over Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), is part of the Ocean Alliance and reportedly could shift some volumes to Singapore to boost its transpacific routes.
Meanwhile, UASC following its merger with Hapag-Lloyd, will become a member of THE Alliance. It is unknown how the realignment will affect UASC's port calls.
As of last year, CMA CGM and UASC contributed about 3.5m teu and 1m teu respectively to Westports’ total container volume of 9.95m teu.
“As for CMA CGM, we expect some volume to go to Singapore but Westports is still going to be one its hubs in the region.
“And for UASC, we are still somewhat unsure how it is going to affect us until we obtain more clarity pending the completion of its merger with Hapag-Lloyd,” he said.
He added that the environment would become a lot clearer from the third quarter of this year after the first few months of the new alliances coming into effect.
“From my experience, when a new shipping alliance start its services, it will take about 15 months to re-allign and sort of predict the exact gain or loss of volume.
“Clearly there will be some winners and losers but it is at this juncture it is too early to tell. Nevertheless, we will continue to focus on to render efficient service to our customers,” said Gnanalingam.
In terms of expansion, Gnanalingam pointed out that the changes in shipping alliances would not affect what Westports had already planned in terms of increasing its capacity.
“We will still go on with our expansion plan up to the development of container terminal nine (CT9) that will see our yearly container handling capacity increase up to 16m teu,” he said.
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