Westports Holdings Berhad announced its financial results for the 2nd quarter and the six months ended 30th June 2024, with the first half achieving a total revenue of RM1.10 billion due to higher container volume of 5.40 million TEUs. The group attributed this to intra-Asia regional trade underpinned Westports' container volume growth as this trade lane accounted for 65% of the container handled.
Revennue for the second quarter was at RM552 million up from last year's quarter of RM542 million, profit afte tax was slightly higher at RM203 million as compared to RM194 million in the same period last year.
First half profits remained positive recording RM408 million against the 1H in 2023 of RM378 million.
Wesports said in the conventional segment, the company handled bulk cargoes amounting to 5.68 million metric tonnes, which will support domestic economic activities as the greater throughput was for project cargoes, ingots, coils, soybeans, and maise.
After workforce and depreciation, fuel is the third-largest operational cost component; the latter's cost increased by 8%. Westports uses unsubsidised diesel for its terminal trucks and container yard cranes and purchases the fuel in Dollars based on prices published by Platts. Hence, the fuel cost increase was due to fluctuations in international fuel prices and Ringgit
vis-à-vis Dollar and is not due to the Government's decision to remove the diesel subsidy.
The Company's total borrowings have increased to RM1.105 billion as the recent drawdown of RM355 million was to facilitate the purchase of Marina Land; the latter is needed to support the Company's WP2 initial container terminal development expenditure of RM12.6 billion.
The group declares its first interim dividend of 8.89 sen per share, which amounted to RM303 million.
Looking ahead GCEO, Datuk Ruben said when completed Westports 2 will nearly double the current 14 million TEUs handling yard capacity to 28 million TEUs. And has committed to investing and maintaining Port Klang as one of the region's biggest and most competitive mega-transhipment hubs and Malaysia's premier gateway shipping port.