KUALA LUMPUR: Westports Holdings Bhd’s roll-on/roll-off (RORO) segment will continue to post moderate growth this year to between 160,000 units and 170,000 units as it relies only on domestic car shipments between Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
RORO vessels carry vehicles which do not require cranes to be loaded or off-loaded but are driven on and off the ship’s decks.
Westports Holdings Bhd chief executive officer Ruben Emir Gnanalingam Abdullah said the company’s RORO segment mostly involves cars manufactured in the peninsula and shipped to Sarawak and Sabah or imported cars coming into Malaysia.
“They are either imported cars or cars manufactured here and sent to Sabah and Sarawak, we don’t export to other countries very much. Its internal transportation – assembled here and sent over there (Sabah and Sarawak), or imported for domestic usage,” he added.
The port operator, which handles 70 per cent of Port Klang’s car imports and exports, attributed the growth in total RORO cargo volume to the increase in the number of cars and industrial vehicles shipped to Sabah and Sarawak.
Going forward, the RORO service is expected to switch gradually to containers.
“Although cars can also go into containers, the general switch from RORO to general containers will not be so fast,” he said.
Keyword: Westports' RORO segment still on growth track