Dubai: Dubai Government owned DP World handled 19.7 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) at its container terminals in Dubai and elsewhere in the second quarter of 2021, with container volumes increasing by 17.6 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis. The numbers reflect improving trade movements, and bodes well for the Dubai entity in the second-half of the year.
There were gains made in India, Europe, Australia and Americas, while the Jebel Ali terminal handled 3.4 million TEU during the quarter, up 4.2 per cent year-on-year. In the first six months, DP World handled 38.6 million TEU, with gross container volumes increasing 13.9 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis.
Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said: "We are delighted to report another strong volume performance with Q2-2021 growth accelerating to 17.1 per cent year-on-year, and up 7.3 per cent compared to Q2-2019, which highlights the strength of the underlying market. 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 Jebal Ali (UAE) continued into Q2-2021 with throughput growth accelerating to 4.2 per cent year-on-year.
"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."
The near-term outlook remains positive, but we do expect growth rates to moderate in the second-half of 2021. We remain mindful that COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainty could once-again disrupt the global economic recovery
