Following the recent announcement confirming the formation of the Ocean shipping alliance, Malaysian port operator Westports Holdings is set to benefit from the new Ocean Alliance, particularly in transhipment volumes, according to IHS Fairplay.
Raymond Yap, Analyst from CIMB bank, said: “We have forecast 8–12% annual transhipment volume growth for Westports over five years from 2017 to 2021, helping Westports to maintain near 80% utilisation despite the commissioning of Container Terminal 8 (CT8) and Container Terminal 9 (CT9) in that period.”
PTI previously reported on the Ocean alliance approval, which consists of CMA CGM, Evergreen, OOCL and China Cosco Shipping.
Technical Paper: Innovative Transhipment Systems: The Bedeschi Success Story
The formation of the new alliance is anticipated to allow the carriers to offer competitive products and comprehensive service networks, which will cover the majority of the major trades.
This news also comes as a positive in a time when bigger alliance formations are anticipated to wreak havoc on terminals, which are attempting to accommodate ever-increasing volumes of cargo.
Terminals may be affected by the alliance shake-up, as many are joint-venture partnerships between alliance partners.
This could in turn result in shipping companies in new mergers wanting to strengthen their portfolio and in turn make purchase from former partners.
