With this in mind, the group is looking at revising tariffs, since they have remained stagnant for the past 11 years.
Westports ceo Ruben Emir Gnanalingam was quoted as saying that there would be some re-routing of services out of Westports once the alliance comes into service but the reduced capacity would be mitigated by the growth in cargo handling underpinned by the robust global trading environment.“We are comfortable with this target for the year. We are very excited with our prospects for 2014," Gnanalingam said.
"The reduced capacity after the P3 alliance come into service is less than 5% while we are expecting cargo handling to grow by 5% to 10% or between 350,000 and 700,000 teu this year," he said, adding that the company was positive that the robust growth momentum underpinned by increasing volume from intra-Asia, Asia-Africa and Asia-Australasia trade routes would mitigate the loss from the P3's re-routing of services. Some estimates see a loss of 200,000 teu due to the re-routing.
“Though this may see lesser volume from them at Westports, we are not concerned, considering that general growth comes from Africa, intra-Asia and Australia trade," he said. In fact, its port utilisation rate, is currently about 80%, a level Westports considers a little on the high side, although this will be alleviated when its latest container terminal 7 (CT7) comes online by the end of the year, coming down to about 75%. ”We try not to be in the 80% range for too long,” Gnanalingam said, noting Westports’ ideal range was between 70% and 80%.
Work on Westports' newest terminal, designed to handle the biggest ships of up to 19,000-teu, is progressing well and is expected to be fully operational towards end of this year with the gradual delivery of seven ship-to-shore cranes, of which two have already arrived and will be operational by the end of the month.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
