Westports budgeting $184m for expansion by year-end

“All these additional facilities are expected to be completed and begin operations towards the end of this year,” he said.

He noted that the budget also included the construction cost of a 600m wharf at CT 9, to be completed by year-end. These upgrades will bring capacity up to 14m teu per year up from 12m per annum currently.

Ruben said once the facilities were completed, the company could focus on increasing its productivity and efficiency, after experiencing a congested utilisation volume last year which had affected its efficiency.

“Last year, the company’s throughput increased too fast, sometimes hitting 87%, and even as high as 94% capacity,” he said.

Gnanalingam said Westports aimed to improve its containers handling time to 40 gross moves per hour from the current 35 gross moves per hour.

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