port focus
The Jebel Ali General Cargo Terminal roll-on, roll-off facility handled as many as 570,000 vehicles in 2015. / Credit: DP World
SOLDIERING ON
Jebel Ali Port Shrugs Off General Cargo Lull BY CRISELDA DIALA-MCBRIDE
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n the United Arab Emirates, DP World has been flexing its adequate muscles to remain a global container-terminal leviathan. Less celebrated is the operator’s general cargo business on its home turf, which includes breakbulk and project cargo handling. Here too, significant strides have been made, according to Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World. “General cargo has seen very strong performance over the past years,” he said. “Despite adverse market conditions, we handled more than 5 million
tonnes of breakbulk, and approximately 4 million of dry bulk in 2015.” The Jebel Ali General Cargo Terminal also serves as a regional roll-on, roll-off hub, handling up to 570,000 vehicles in 2015. That translates to roughly one vehicle imported, exported or reexported every minute of every day. Bin Sulayem said the General Cargo Terminal recorded a compound annual growth rate of 7 percent between 2004 and 2014. Over the past decade, Jebel Ali Port also moved more than 60 million tons of breakbulk cargoes.
BUCKING THE DOWNTURN
Jebel Ali appears unfazed by symptoms of a much deeper malaise that has hit the global breakbulk and project
cargo industry. While other regional terminals reel from the oil price rut, low freight rates and weak demand, the DP World subsidiary is bucking the trend, thanks to Dubai’s trade-hub status. In addition to timber, plywood and project cargo, the port’s breakbulk imports also include iron and steel – vital for the Gulf Cooperation Council region’s infrastructure industry, which remains active despite the economic slowdown brought about by shrinking crude revenues. According to Deloitte, the pipeline of infrastructure projects in the GCC region as of May 2016 amounted to US$2 trillion; the majority of these contracts were in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. Regional construction represents 52 percent of these projects, followed by transport at 19 percent, power at 11 percent and chemical at 5.5 percent. Because of the shift in macroeconomic headwinds, Bin Sulayem admits that the outlook for trade growth remains uncertain. However, he believes Jebel Ali Port, and the wider DP World group, is well posiSultan Ahmed tioned to outperform Bin Sulayem the market. DP World “We are one of the few ports that have managed to mitigate the impact of the slowdown by seeking newer opportunities and expanding our global portfolio,” he said. “We remain focused on delivering relevant capacity at the right time, through disciplined investment, [improved] efficiencies and [shrewdly managed] costs, to drive profitability.”
“We are one of the few ports that have managed to mitigate the impact of the slowdown by seeking newer opportunities.” – Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem 48 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
ISSUE 5 / 2016