Dubai’s DP World reports 17.1% volume growth in Q2 2021

DP World Limited handled 19.7 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the Q2 2021, with gross container volumes increasing by 17.6 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis and 17.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

The growth in Q2 was complemented by an acceleration of business in most of its regions, according to the company, especially its terminals in India, Europe, Australia and Americas.

Jebel Ali in the UAE handled 3.4 million TEU in 2Q2021, up 4.2 percent year-on-year. On a H1 2021 gross basis, DP World handled 38.6 million TEU, with gross container volumes increasing by 13.9 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis and 13.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

At a consolidated level, its terminals handled 11.4 million TEU in Q2 2021, increasing 18.2 per cent on a reported basis and up 17.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

“We are delighted to report another strong volume performance with Q2 growth accelerating to 17.1 per cent year-on-year, and up 7.3 per cent compared to Q2 of 2019, which highlights the strength of the underlying market,” said DP World group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.

“Growth continued to be broad based with all our regions delivering a robust performance, with India being exceptionally strong. Encouragingly, the recent volume improvement at our flagship port of Jebel Ali continued into Q2 2021 with throughput growth accelerating to 4.2 per cent year-on-year.”

“Looking ahead, the near-term outlook remains positive, but we do expect growth rates to moderate in the second half of 2021. Furthermore, we remain mindful that the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainty could once-again disrupt the global economic recovery,” he added.

“Overall, we continue to make good progress on our strategy to deliver supply chain solutions to beneficial cargo owners and are focused on growing profitability while managing growth capex. The strong start to 2021 leaves us well placed to deliver an improved full year performance and we remain focused on delivering our 2022 targets.”

Earlier this month, DP World unveiled plans to buy South Africa’s Imperial Logistics Ltd. for $890m, in what would be its most significant acquisition in Africa to date.

Read: DP World to buy Imperial Logistics in $890m bet on Africa

DP World is one of the world’s largest operators of marine ports and inland cargo terminals, stretching from gateways in London and Antwerp to hubs in Africa, Russia, India and the Americas.