Heavy weather for ports operator DP World

The slowdown in global shipping this year has dragged down Dubai-based DP World’s first half net profits, which slumped 34 per cent to US$188 million (Dh689.9m).
Volumes for the port operator declined by 10 per cent between January through June worldwide and by 7 per cent at its flagship Jebel Ali terminal in Dubai amid a “very challenging operating environment”, said Mohammed Sharaf, the chief executive of DP World, the fourth-largest terminal operator with 49 terminals worldwide. The results were better than the global average decline of 15 per cent, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants in London.

Mr Sharaf said the “unpredictable trends in global trade” are expected to continue in the second half of the year, but pockets of growth in its emerging markets businesses should help counter the wider decline in trade.

The company is dealing with the sharpest fall in global seaborne trade since containerised shipping was introduced in the 1950s, with global trade volumes expected to decline by 9 per cent this year, according to the World Trade Organisation. The company has responded by reviewing and postponing nearly all of its expansion plans, although it has begun operating new terminals in Djibouti and Algeria, and renewed terminal concessions in Australia.