Gulftainer, the largest privately-owned independent port operator based in the UAE, has announced it recorded an overall growth of 4% across its global portfolio in 2015.
Flemming Dalgaard, CEO of Gulftainer, said: “The container industry worldwide is witnessing challenges in growth volumes due to a slowdown in the Chinese and European markets.
“However, Gulftainer’s success in bucking this trend with positive and robust performances across our terminals underlines our ability to adapt to market volatilities and economic fluctuations.
“Gulftainer is currently on a growth path to expand organically as well as through leveraging new contracts from 2015. Our outlook for 2016 remains cautiously optimistic.
Technical Paper: Khorfakkan Container Terminal: Mega-ship Master
“We will continue to invest in infrastructure to meet the requirements of our customers serving newer, larger ships and step up our capacity to handle higher volumes per call.
“As we steer ahead with this goal, it is encouraging to note that our terminals continue to build credibility both at home and internationally with their above market operational performance.”
2016 marked the beginning of Gulftainer’s operations in the US, at Port Canaveral, where StreamLines, part of the SeaTrade Group, started operations with its ‘Blue Stream Service’ – a weekly container cargo service connecting Port Canaveral to Europe, the French West Indies, and Central America.
Fact File: Gulftainer’s operations in the UAE currently include the Khorfakkan Container Terminal (KCT) and the Sharjah Container Terminal (SCT) at Port Khalid, as well as the Sharjah Inland Container Depot (SICD). The company’s international presence spans the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas with projects in Iraq (Umm Qasr), Saudi Arabia (Jeddah and Jubail), Brazil (Recife) and the US (Canaveral). In the UAE, Gulftainer’s Khorfakkan Container Terminal and Sharjah Container Terminal collectively achieved a 9% surge in container volumes. KCT registered the strongest growth of 9% across the company’s portfolio, and set a new record of handling a total volume of 19,561 TEU for a single vessel during 2015.
