SIMIC

In the final quarter of 2021, the Dubai-headquartered terminal operator processed 19.6 million TEU, up 2.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

During the 12-month period, India, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Europe, Australia, and America's regions were the key drivers for this growth, reports London's Port Technology.

At an asset level, Qingdao (China), Mumbai, Mundra, Chennai (India), Sokhna (Egypt), London Gateway (UK), Caucedo (Dominican Republic), Callao (Peru), and Sydney (Australia) all delivered a strong performance.

Jebel Ali in the UAE in particular handled 13.7 million TEU in 2021, up 1.9 per cent year on year.

At a consolidated level, DP World's terminals handled a total of 45.5 million TEU in 2021, increasing 8.8 per cent on a reported basis and 8.1 per cent year on year on a like-for-like basis.

"We are delighted to report another strong volume performance with growth of 9.4 per cent for the year, which is once again ahead of industry growth of 6.5 per cent," said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group chairman and CEO of DP World.

"This outperformance is due to our continued investment in high quality assets in the right locations and the delivery of our strategy to offer integrated supply chain solutions to beneficial cargo owners.

"All our regions delivered volume growth with India being a key driver and encouragingly Jebel Ali (UAE) delivered a steady performance with 1.9 per cent growth in 2021.

"As expected, growth rates moderated in the final quarter of 2021 as the new Covid-19 variant, inflation and supply chain bottlenecks impacted global growth.

"However, looking ahead to 2022, we expect our portfolio to continue to deliver growth and, while the year has started encouragingly, we remain mindful that the Covid-19 pandemic, continued supply chain disruptions, rising inflation and geopolitical uncertainty could continue to hinder the global economic recovery.

"Overall, we are pleased with the business performance in 2021 and remain focused on growing profitability while managing growth capex. The strong volume leaves us well placed to deliver an improved set of full year results and we remain focused on delivering our 2022 leverage targets."