Bubai's ports giant DP World yesterday announced a modest 2.4 per cent increase in the volume of cargo it handled last year compared to 2012.
The firm handled the equivalent of 56.1 million twenty-foot containers last year, it revealed yesterday.
Take four joint-venture ports that it stopped operating in the 12 months out of the picture and its like-for-like container growth was 3.7 per cent, the firm said.
Nevertheless, despite what the firm presented as a "good performance", DP World's Group CEO Mohammed Sharaf admitted: "After a strong start to the year we had a challenging second half."
Despite the tough operating environment, the firm says it expects it's 2012 financial results to be "in line with expectations" and it will unveil them in March. The firm's UAE operations handled the equivalent of 13.3 million containers last year - up 1.9 per cent on the year before.
However, the firm's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa generally saw a two per cent drop in container volumes. The company's Asia Pacific and Indian operations performed best - showing a 6.2 per cent increase in gross volumes to 26.1 million containers last year.
DP World is on track to open new capacity at its Jebel Ali base this year, as well as at its high-profile London Gateway Port to serve the UK capital.
© 7Days 2013
