COMPAGNIE Maritime dAffretement-Compagnoe Generale Maritime SA( CMA-CGM) has signed a terminal service agreement (TSA) WITH Westport, said Simon P.Whitelaw, the liner's Malaysian operations managing director.

The agreement is expected to put to lid on speculation that the French liner is on the verge of moving the bulk of its operations to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor.

Whitelaw said that CMA-CGM didn't sign a dedicated facilities agreement with Westport because it was more economical for the company to do so.

Obviously cost was an important factor. We are only at Westport for about 60% of the time. If we had signed a dedicated service agreement, we would still have to pay for the 40% lag time during which we are not using the facilities at the port", Whitelaw said.

On the TSA,Whitlaw said that the agreement supercedes a facility agreement the liner had signed with Westport last October.

"The new TSA allows us to increase our calls at the port without signing further agreements"

The French liner also plans to boost its calls to Westport. Whitelaw told Mail Money that CMA-CGM plans to increase the number of calls to the port by September.

"We are looking at the possibility of making 20 calls a week to Westport. Currently we are making 17 calls a week."

He said that additional calls may also be added to Westport in the first half of next year depending on growth in the number of boxes handled.

For this year, CMA-CGM expects to handle between 600,000 and 700,000 container boxes at Westport. Last year, the liner has shipped 550,000 boxes through Westport.