DP World increases 2008 profits by 48 percent

DP World has achieved this by growing its revenue 20% to $3.23bn for the year. The group’s terminals increased container throughput 15% to 27.7m teu, up from 24m teu the year before.

According to DP World chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem, 2008 was another year of excellent performance for DP World in which the focus on the faster growing emerging markets allowed it to once again outperform the market.

Although the 2008performance left DP World in a strong financial position to meet the challenges that lie ahead in 2009, he warned that the volume deceleration in the last quarter of 2008 has continued into early 2009 and shows little sign of easing in the foreseeable future. Falling utilisation rates across container terminals globally mean the demand for new capacity in the short-term is much diminished and taking into account existing committed capacity, the company has decided to defer much of its planned new capacity until such time as higher utilisation rates return.