DP World volumes inch up 1.6% in second quarter

Dubai: DP World, the Dubai-based ports operator, reported on Tuesday a 1.6 per cent increase in the container volumes it handled in the second quarter of 2019, even as volumes in the Middle East fell.

The company handled 18.3 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) in the second quarter of this year, up from the 18 million handled in the same quarter of 2018. This brings total volumes in the first half of 2019 to 35.8 million TEU – up 0.5 per cent year-on-year.

In the UAE alone, DP World’s volumes fell by 6.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 to 3.9 million TEUs, and dropped by 7.4 per cent in the first six months of the year.

The company attributed the softening of volumes to “lower-margin cargo and challenging market conditions.”

“However, we expect a more stable throughput performance in the UAE for the second half of the year,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and chief executive officer of DP World.