Port operator DP World has opened the door to further investments in the UK as well as Africa and Iran, London’s The Telegraph newspaper has reported.
“We always monitor the market and if there is a location in the UK that our customers want we will be there,” Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, was quoted as saying.
“There is a feeling that the market is getting better in Europe.”
Based on its current expansion plan, subsidiary DP Beyond Europe is developing its business aggressively in Africa and bin Sulayem said the ports operator is poised for an upturn in the Middle East if Iran emerges from the current international sanctions which restrict trade.
“Historically Iran before sanctions was one of our biggest markets and if it comes back it will be significant,” he said.
DP World’s London Gateway terminal, located at the mouth of the Thames river, received its first cargo vessel in November after a £1.5bn ($2.5bn) investment led by DP World, which is 80 percent owned by the Dubai government.
However, bin Sulayem said the port had experienced a slow start and was currently handling just three vessels per week after signing up six major customers.
“You talk about Gateway, you talk about a greenfield project and it’s not easy to start from scratch especially in a mature market like the UK. But it will eventually allow the UK to become not just an import market but an export market,” bin Sulayem added.
The project, which DP World inherited through its acquisition of P&O Ports in 2005, will eventually handle 3.5 million containers per year and create about 27,000 jobs.
Bin Sulayem said that DP World was currently in talks with several companies to set up in the adjoining logistics park at the facility in Thurrock, Essex.
The Telegraph reported that Marks & Spencer had agreed to open its third major national distribution centre at London Gateway.
DP World, which is partially listed in London, said earlier this month that revenues had dropped by 1.5 percent to just over $3bn in 2013 after cargo volumes slipped by 3.8 percent. Profits, excluding separately disclosed items, climbed 10.9 percent to $604m, compared with 2012.
However, including separately disclosed items mainly related to the sale of ports in Hong Kong profits fell 13.4 percent to $640m in 2013, The Telegraph report said.
Bin Sulayem said that DP World remains in a strong financial position and expected that global container traffic would exceed a five percent increase in activity led by developed markets this year.
Based on its current expansion plan and the opening of new facilities at its main hub at Jebel Ali in the UAE, DP World will increase its capacity by another 30m twenty-foot-equivalent container units to 100m by 2020.
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