Seaports - more TEU's for Wesport in 2010

Westports expects to handle more TEUs this year
Westports Malaysia expects the terminal to handle 5.2 million TEUs this year, up from 4.5 million last year, said its executive chairman G. Gnanalingam.

He said the last few months has seen a growth in shipments on the back of the recovery of regional economies, reported Reuters.

"We have reached a big inflexion point in terms of shipping and this has been seen in our manpower (needs)," he said.

Westports recorded five million TEUs, the standard measurement for shipping containers, in 2008.

At the height of the crisis last year, shipping lines in general suffered losses totalling US$20 billion as the world shipping volume dropped by 25 per cent while capacity increased by 35 per cent.

Gnanalingam described undercutting as one of the main reasons as shipping lines grappled with excess capacity.

He said the shipping scene is likely to continue to see changes with more consolidation among the players.

For instance, Maersk stands strongly due to merger exercise compared to a decade ago when the shipping scene was dominated by Maersk and Sealand and P&O and Nedlloyd.

A decade ago there were 100 shipping lines and the number is expected to shrink by half within this year.

In terms of growth this year, Gnanalingam said the main drivers would be China, India and the Middle East, markets that will benefit from Malaysia's exports. This would be followed by Australia and South America before Europe kicks in.