DP World Outperforms Market in First Quarter

Leading port operator DP World announced Thursday that its container volumes grew 5.7 percent year on year in the first quarter, reaching a total of 16.4 million TEU for the period. Asian and American facilities led the way for volume growth. 

At terminals under its direct control, the firm moved 8.7 million TEU in the first three months of the year, up 20 percent. The numbers were boosted in part by the addition of a DP World-managed facility at Busan: in December the firm purchased a majority stake in the port's largest terminal, PNC, which has a capacity of about five million TEU. 

When excluding its newly opened terminals in Turkey, Canada and Somalia, the firm's overall performance was still strong, with organic growth of 5 percent – about twice the estimated industry average. 

"There are signs of a gradual improvement in the market environment in 2017 and our portfolio has had an encouraging start to the year delivering ahead-of-market growth. The robust performance was delivered across all three regions, which once again demonstrates that we have the relevant capacity in the right markets," said chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.  "Given the encouraging start to the year, we remain well placed to meet full year 2017 market expectations."

DP World recorded a strong $1.1 billion net profit last year, boosted by the sale of a 45 percent stake in its terminals in Prince Rupert and Vancouver, Canada.