Q1 box volumes up 27% Westports Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: Port Klang's Westports Malaysia terminal clocked-up 27% volume growth in the first quarter of the year as business bounced back. Westports said it handled 1.24m teu in the first quarter of the year, compared to 981,000 teu in the same period in 2009, and increase of 27%. "If we compare our first quarter figures with that of 2008, which had a stronger performance compared with the slower and weaker 2009, we have actually grown by 7% and this puts us on a stronger platform to achieve 5.2 million teu for 2010," said Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, Westports executive director. The terminal operator handled 1.16m teu in the first quarter of 2009. "Looking forward, the outlook for 2010 will be generally better than in 2009. There has been an uptrend in Westports' throughput in past months and that could well be extended into the rest of the year," said Gnanalingham. [12/04/10]