DP World Limited announces a volume growth of 9.4 percent in 2021, an increase of 8.9 percent from last year. This was achieved from a deal of 77.9 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals. On a Q4 2021 basis, DP World handled 19.6 million TEU, up 2.6 percent year-on-year on a reported basis and up 2.3 percent on a like-for-like basis.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DP World, said: “We are delighted to report another strong volume performance with growth of 9.4 percent for the year, which is once again ahead of industry growth of 6.5 per cent4. 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 percent growth in 2021.”
2021 gross volume growth was broad-based with India, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Europe, Australia, and Americas regions being the key growth drivers. At an asset level, Qingdao (China), Mumbai, Mundra, Chennai (India), Sokhna (Egypt), London Gateway (UK), Caucedo (Dominican Republic), Callao (Peru), and Sydney (Australia) delivered a strong performance. Jebel Ali (UAE) handled 13.7 million TEU in 2021, up 1.9 percent year-on-year.
At a consolidated level, terminals handled 45.4 million TEU during 2021, increasing 8.8 percent on a reported basis and 8.1 percent year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.
Salayem concluded that growth rates slowed down in the end quarter of 2021 due to conditions of the new variant, inflation, and supply crunch that stunted global growth. On the other hand, although 2022 started out with a growth booster, the firm will be mindful of the continuing issues related to the pandemic, geopolitical uncertainties that could be obstacles to the world economic recovery.