DP World Limited has reported that it handled 52.3 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first nine months of 2017.

Gross container volumes grew by 10.0 percent year-on-year on a reported basis and 9.6 percent on a like-for-like basis, with the third quarter growth rates accelerating to 13.5 percent year-on-year on a reported basis and 13.3 percent on a like-for-like basis, ahead of second quarter growth and Drewry Maritime’s upgraded industry estimate of 5.5 percent throughput growth in 2017.

Global trade outlook improved significantly in 2017 with the World Trade Organisation recently upgrading trade growth from 2.4 percent to 3.6 percent in 2017, and all three DP World regions saw third quarter growth rates accelerate even more than the second quarter of 2017, particularly the terminals in Middle East and Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The UAE handled 11.6 million TEU in 9M 2017, growing 4.6 percent year-on-year.

At a consolidated level, DP World terminals handled 27.3 million TEU during the first nine months of 2017, a 24.2 percent improvement in performance on a reported basis and up 6.2 percent year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. Reported consolidated volume in the Asia Pacific and Southern Asia region was boosted by the consolidation of Pusan (South Korea) at the end of 2016.

Speaking on the report, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "The recovery of global trade in 2017 has outperformed previous expectations and we have seen significant upward revisions by economists and industry experts. Benefitting from the improved trading environment and market share gains from the new shipping alliances, our global portfolio continues to deliver ahead-of-market growth and this across all three regions. We have seen an acceleration of growth rates in the third quarter as we employ the right strategy and the relevant deep-water capacity in the key markets.

"We are pleased to see 3Q 2017 UAE volumes continue to grow despite uncertainty in the region and the performance across our terminals in the Middle East and Africa, the Americas and Europe remains strong.

"During the third quarter, we added 1.5 million TEU of new capacity in Jebel Ali Terminal 3 and 0.5 million TEU in Prince Rupert (Canada), which provides us room for continued growth in these key markets. We continue to seek growth opportunities in Latin America, Africa and South Asia where there remains significant structural growth potential.