Dubai – Mubasher: DP World Limited on Tuesday announced positive handling results for the first nine months of 2018.

The terminal operator said it handled 53.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the nine-month period ended September.

Gross container volumes increased 2.6% “year-on-year on a reported basis and 3.7% on a like-for-like basis,” DP World said in a statement.

From July to September, gross like-for-like volumes dipped by 0.5% due to the tougher year-on-year comparables and softer volumes in the UAE, Dubai’s state-owned ports operator added.

The UAE handled 11.3 million TEU in the January-September period of this year, down 2.1% year-on-year, while volumes dropped 6.7% year-on-year in Q3-18 due to the challenging macro-environment and loss of lower-margin cargo, DP World said.

It noted that growth in Europe remained robust with strong growth in London Gateway (UK) and Rotterdam (Netherlands).

At a consolidated level, DP World’s terminals handled 27.7 million TEU in the first nine months of this year, with a 1.6% growth in performance on a reported basis and up 2.2% year-on-year on a like-for-like3 basis, according to the statement.

Commenting on the results, DP World Group’s chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said that “as highlighted in our first half throughput announcement, we have seen our volume growth decelerate due to the strong prior year performance and general caution in the market given the current uncertainty in global trade.”

He attributed the UAE’s third-quarter volume weakness to “loss of low-margin throughput.”

He affirmed that the terminal operator’s focus “remains on profitable cargo and, while the nearterm volume outlook in Jebel Ali remains challenging, we have taken measures to maintain profitability.”