DP World handled 15 million TEU across its global portfolio of container terminals during the first quarter of 2015, with gross container volumes growing by 4.4%, according to a statement released by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of the group.
The terminal operator has recently announced plans to acquire a Canadian terminal for around US$456m.
He said: “First quarter growth was largely driven by a stronger performance from our Europe, Asia Pacific and UAE terminals. The UAE had another strong quarter handling 3.9 million TEU, representing growth of 7.7%. Conditions in Australia remained mixed, while capacity constraints weighed on performance in the Indian sub-continent but should ease as we shortly deliver new capacity at Nhava Sheva.
“At a consolidated level, our terminals handled 7.1 million TEU during the first quarter of 2015, a 4.5% improvement in performance. During the quarter we announced the close of our acquisition of Economic Zones World FZE, which includes the Jebel Ali Freezone surrounding our flagship terminal. This transaction further reinforces our position as the leading logistics hub in the region.
“Although some of our terminals continue to operate in a challenging macro environment, we expect market conditions across the portfolio to be generally favourable for the remainder of 2015. We remain confident in performing in line or ahead of the market which is forecast to grow at approximately 4-5% in 2015.
“Our new developments remain on track with Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Nhava Sheva (India) due to come on line in the first half of this year [2015]. This will be followed by the opening of Yarimca (Turkey) and an additional two million TEU of capacity at Jebel Ali (UAE) in the second half which will take total Jebel Ali capacity to 19 million TEU.
“As always, we remain focused on driving profitability by targeting higher margin throughput and improving efficiencies.”
