DP World signalled wary over the state of global trade in the short term amid ongoing market pressures, even as the port operator reported growth in its performance for the third quarter.

DP World said it handled 59.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first nine months of 2022 with gross container volumes increasing by 2.0% year-on-year on a reported basis and up 2.5% on a like-for-like basis.

For the third quarter, it also saw a 1.5% increase in volume handles to 20.1 million TEUs, which is an expansion of 2.1% on a like-for-like basis.

"Q3 2022 gross volume growth was mainly driven by Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Americas, and Australia with a strong performance from Qingdao (China), ATI (Philippines), LCIT (Thailand), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Vancouver (Canada), Posorja (Ecuador), Santos (Brazil), and Australia," DP World said in its report.

 Source: DP World

The port operator noted that for the period, Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates handled 3.5 million TEU also up 2.0% year-on-year.

At a consolidated level, DP World said its terminals handled 34.6 million TEU, up 1.9% year-on-year and up 1.4% on a like-for-like basis in the January to September period.

On a third-quarter consolidated level, the port operator handled 11.7 million TEU, increasing 2.7% on a reported basis and 1.5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.

"Uncertain" short-term outlook

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World said as expected, growth rates have decelerated due to the more challenging market conditions, but global trade continues to remain resilient.

"We report another robust set of throughput figures with nine-month volume growth of 2.5%, which is once again ahead of industry growth of 1.1%," the DP World chief said, adding that the portfolio is expected to continue to outperform the market. 

"Growth in the third quarter was primarily driven by solid performance across our Asia Pacific, Americas and Australia terminals. Encouragingly, our flagship port of Jebel Ali (UAE) continues to deliver robust volumes with the growth of 2.0% year-on-year."

Moving forward, Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the short-term outlook remains cloudy as the global environment continues to be marred by uncertainties, nonetheless, he said that the long-term outlook remains robust.

"Looking ahead, the near-term outlook remains uncertain given the geopolitical environment, inflationary pressures and currency fluctuations but we remain positive on the medium to long-term outlook for global trade," the DP World chief said.

"Overall, given the solid nine-month volume performance, we expect to deliver an improved set of full-year results."