Duisport's look across the borders
The Duisport Group is looking back on an exceptionally good financial year 2021. At the company’s annual press conference, CEO Martin Bangen attributed this success in part to the company’s broad-based business model.
Sales increased by 18.9% to EUR 346.8 million (2020: EUR 291.7 million), well above the forecast of EUR 315 million. Ebitda grew by 18.8% at the same level to now EUR 54.6 million (2020: EUR 44.3 million). Profit before tax was EUR 29.5 million, above the previous year's figure of EUR 22.3 million. Net income after taxes grew by 33.1% from EUR 14.2 million to EUR 18.9 million. Container throughput rose by 2% to around 4.3 million teu (previous year 4.2 million teu), while a total of 58.2 million t of goods were handled by ship, rail and truck.
All Duisburg ports together handled a total of 111.1 million t (previous year: 110.4 million t). Among the business segments, logistics services were particularly successful, with sales increasing by a remarkable 35% to EUR 116.7 million (2020: EUR 86.4 million).
The decisive factors for this development included upticks in the forwarding services provided by Duisport Agency, the expansion of activities in Poland and the growth of Duisport Consult’s project business. Packaging logistics raised its turnover by 8.6% to EUR 94.6 million in 2021, but this segment has not yet reached the pre-corona level of EUR 102 million. Some EUR 42 million were invested last year (2020: EUR 38.6 million).
With over 2,800 voyages via the New Silk Road, goods traffic with China showed an overall increase of 12% and a surge of 26% in teu volumes in 2021. This upward trend is unlikely to continue in 2022. Last year's average of around 60 arrivals and departures per week has currently fallen to around 40 per week - and further developments could depend on the EU's sanctions policy towards Russia.
In terms of international investments, the Duisport Group has held on to operating companies in Belgium, France, Italy and China, among others. In 2021, Duisburger Hafen acquired a 15% stake in the Port of Trieste.
The development of the Railport in Turkey is currently underway in cooperation with the Arkas Group. With this new facility, it should be possible to handle trailers in the order of 350-400,000 teu per year on the main Istanbul-Ankara route in future.
When asked by ITJ about further plans for international participations, Bangen said that the Duisport Group would be aiming to significantly increase such investments abroad in the future. He added that the next steps were currently being planned, but that it was still too early to make any concrete statements. (cd)