DP World is growing on a global basis, but not with help from its Australian and US operations
DP World says its global network is charging ahead, with 8.9 per cent growth in volume recorded last year.
The Dubai-based company says its ports handled just under 60 million twenty foot-equivalent units (TEU) in 2014, up from just under 55 million TEU in the previous year.
“With volume growth of 8.9 per cent in 2014, we believe we have once again outperformed the expected 2014 market growth of approximately 5 per cent. This demonstrates that a portfolio focused on origin and destination cargo and faster-growing markets continues to be the right strategy to follow,” it says,
More than a quarter of that volume was handled at DP World’s flagship Jebel Ali port in Dubai. It is currently being upgraded and is hoped to offer 19 million TEU capacity by the end of this year.
Operations in the Asia-Pacific and Indian subcontinent region accounted for the most volume last year, with 27.8 million TEU processed at ports including Chennai, Manila, and Hong Kong.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa provided the fastest-growing of DP World’s three geographic divisions. These operations, including the Jebel Ali port, accounted for close to 25 million TEU movements last year, up 10.2 per cent on the region’s 2013 effort.
But DP World’s third division – covering Australia and the Americas – has not maintained that rest-of-world growth trend for DP World.
Representing only 11 per cent of the group’s total gross volume across its nine marine terminals, this division increased its volume on a reported basis, up by 1.6 per cent to just over 7 million TEU for the year.
But the same figures represent a 2.2 per cent drop-off over the 12 months when converted to a “like for like” basis – figures that have been normalised to account for divestments and new capacity across the network.
Along with Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, the DP World Australia and Americas division includes data from its operations in Canada, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
DP World Australia has not made a separate breakdown of its local performance available.