French line CMA CGM is on course to move two million TEUs or 25 per cent of Westports total volume this year, CMA CGM & ANL Malaysia managing director Simon Whitelaw told Business Times.
The container volume is 25 per cent more than the 1.6 million TEUs CMA CGM handled last year.
"Our strategy is to grow faster than the market. If the market is growing at eight per cent, we aim to grow at 12 per cent," he said.
"We have to do that because we have the largest order book coming in the next three to four years," he added.
Volume growth will expand in 2008 onwards with a number of bigger capacity ships coming into service in the next three and a half years.
In September, CMA-CGM will bring into service 11,500-TEU vessels followed by 13,500-TEU ships in two years.
Whitelaw said the huge vessels may present a challenge to Westports but it would help to bring the slot cost down and achieve economies of scale.
"Whatever happens to the freight rate we know we have to keep driving the unit cost down. We need to work closely with the key hub ports that we got and Westports is one of them," he said.
Malaysia's Westports is CMA-CGM's home base for Asia.
In order to fill the large ships, Whitelaw said, volume is paramount and the aim would be to grow its market share in a more sensible basis.
"We need now to look at all markets namely Sabah and Sarawak, the east coast of Peninsular as well as Penang. We need to feed in or make sure we have the service capability whether by feeder or rail to bring in that business into Port Klang, which is our hub port. We are looking at all possible sources of revenue," he said.
Touching on Penang, he said, CMA-CGM is in talks with high-tech companies from the US and Germany "to see where we can fit into their global sourcing and shipping patterns".
Despite rising freight rates and fuel prices, Whitelaw said CMA-CGM is on course to meet its targets this year.
The container volume is 25 per cent more than the 1.6 million TEUs CMA CGM handled last year.
"Our strategy is to grow faster than the market. If the market is growing at eight per cent, we aim to grow at 12 per cent," he said.
"We have to do that because we have the largest order book coming in the next three to four years," he added.
Volume growth will expand in 2008 onwards with a number of bigger capacity ships coming into service in the next three and a half years.
In September, CMA-CGM will bring into service 11,500-TEU vessels followed by 13,500-TEU ships in two years.
Whitelaw said the huge vessels may present a challenge to Westports but it would help to bring the slot cost down and achieve economies of scale.
"Whatever happens to the freight rate we know we have to keep driving the unit cost down. We need to work closely with the key hub ports that we got and Westports is one of them," he said.
Malaysia's Westports is CMA-CGM's home base for Asia.
In order to fill the large ships, Whitelaw said, volume is paramount and the aim would be to grow its market share in a more sensible basis.
"We need now to look at all markets namely Sabah and Sarawak, the east coast of Peninsular as well as Penang. We need to feed in or make sure we have the service capability whether by feeder or rail to bring in that business into Port Klang, which is our hub port. We are looking at all possible sources of revenue," he said.
Touching on Penang, he said, CMA-CGM is in talks with high-tech companies from the US and Germany "to see where we can fit into their global sourcing and shipping patterns".
Despite rising freight rates and fuel prices, Whitelaw said CMA-CGM is on course to meet its targets this year.