KUALA LUMPUR (April 27): Westports Holdings Bhd is expecting a single-digit container throughput growth level for the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2021 (FY21), said group managing director Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam.
“Economic growth should recover in 2021 after a pandemic ravaged year. We expect a single-digit container throughput growth level,” he said in a statement issued by the group after its annual general meeting today.
The statement noted that Westports handled a container throughput of 10.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in FY20, the second highest ever in the group’s history and only 3% lesser than the previous year’s record volume.
This was “despite the worst pandemic in a century and its pervasive subsequent global adverse effects” during the year, said Westports.
“Westports was the first and still is the only port in Malaysia that handles more than 10 million TEUs of container throughput in a year,” it added.
Ruben envisaged that economic growth should recover in FY21 after the pandemic ravaged year.
“The vaccination programme roll-out worldwide should pave the way for a gradual recovery in economic activities while the fiscal stimulus is bolstering economic activities in many countries,” he said.
“Peering into the longer term, the slight congestion experienced by Westports at the end of 2020 and constraints experienced by many ports abroad reaffirmed our vision of the need to undertake the proposed mega container terminal expansion that we have been planning for in recent years,” he added.
Westports said its new expanded facility would double the total container terminal handling capacity and enhance total yard space significantly.
Ruben said Westports also achieved a new container volume record by handling 23,183 TEUs in a single vessel in FY20.
The group also adopted a prudent approach of temporarily trimming the payout ratio to 60% to conserve cash in FY20. It distributed a total dividend amounting to RM393 million or 11.52 sen per share for the year.
Ruben said Westports will revert to a payout ratio of 75% in the current year.
Since the group’s initial public offering in 2013, Westports has distributed a total dividend of RM3.14 billion to shareholders, he added.
