Dubai port owner DP World holds steady as home market shrinks

The owner of P&O Ferries said its global portfolio shipped 17.5m twenty-foot containers in the first quarter of the year, broadly flat from the year before.

Gross container volumes declined 0.6 per cent year-on-year on a reported basis, Dubai-based DP World said today.

Read more: Ports owner DP World increases revenue growth amid global expansion

Meanwhile like-for-like volume fell 0.7 per cent a year after a strong first quarter of 2018 where volumes rose 8.4 per cent.

The drop was driven by a fall in the United Arab Emirates and Australia, the company said. UAE ports handled the equivalent of 3.5m twenty-foot containers, down 8.8 per cent year-on-year.

Chief executive sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said: “As previously flagged, we have seen softer volumes in the first quarter of 2019 due to a strong prior year performance and general caution in some markets given the current uncertainty in the macro-environment.

“In the UAE, the volume weakness is mainly due to loss of low-margin throughput, where our focus remains on profitable cargo and, while we expect the recent trends to continue into the second quarter, we do expect an improvement in the second half of the year.”

Earlier this year the group bought back British freight company P&O Ferries 13 years after selling it to Dubai World.

Read more: DP World pays £322m for P&O Ferries

The £322m deal gave DP World access to P&O Ferrymasters, which has a network in 19 European locations, and 2.5m freight units.

“On our wider portfolio, we have made good progress in strengthening our product which offers a greater role in the global supply chain as a solutions provider. We continue to focus on delivering operational excellence, managing costs and disciplined investment to remain the trade partner of choice,” Bin Sulayem said.