DP World's ambition remains global
DP World draws a positive balance for the year 2019. The Dubai-headquartered port and terminal operator handled 71.2 million teu across the globe, with a modest uptick of +1.0% on a like-for-like basis. Q4/2019 brought momentum with a +2.1% growth, mainly driven by operations in Asia Pacific and Africa.
The flagship facilities in Jebel Ali handled 14.1 million teu in 2019 –considerably down 5.6% year-on-year due to a decline in low margin cargo. At a consolidated level, DP World's terminals handled 39.9 million teu in 2019, an 8.6% improvement in performance on a reported basis and down 0.5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.
Thus, the group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem commented that 2019 was "a challenging year with the trade war between China and US and regional geopolitics causing uncertainty in the market."
Growth across Asia and Africa was driven by the terminals in Pusan (South Korea), Qingdao (China), Manila (Philippines) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), in Europe in London Gateway (UK) and Yarimca (Turkey) and in the Americas in Prince Rupert (Canada) and Callao (Peru). (mw)