AD Ports Group sees profits rise 115% on record volumes

Revenues rose 14%, to $1.06bn, while EBITDA was up only 7%, to $436m.

Container volumes rose 6% year-on-year to 3.4m teu, despite what the company called “ongoing supply chain constraints faced in the global shipping and container market.”

General cargo also hit record levels of 45m metric tonnes in 2021, up 50% on the year earlier, while economic cities and free zones leased 3.0m square metres of land during the period, as the build-out of the massive Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) continued.

AD Ports Group in February raised equity of $1.09 bn in an initial public offering to list on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, and issued a $1bn of 10-year bonds in April 2021. “AD Ports Group’s credit rating of A+ was reaffirmed by S&P and Fitch post-listing,” it said.

This year, it acquired a 22 percent stake in logistics firm Aramex PJSC and 10 percent of local contractor National Marine Dredging Company, the combined market value of the stakes being just over $680 million, and also added local topside-subsea solutions provider, Divetech Marine Engineering Services.

The terminal has locked-in customers in recent years and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) entered into a joint venture via its subsidiary Terminal Investment Ltd. (TIL) with AD Ports Group in 2018, to form operator AD Terminals, while China Shipping Ports (CSP) has also launched its own facility at Khalifa Port Container Terminal (KPCT).

CMA CGM has announced that it will invest $154m in a new 1.8m teu terminal at the facility which is set to open at the beginning of 2024. Total nameplate capacity at KPCT will then pass the 10m teu mark, if CSP exercises its option to increase capacity to 3.5m teu at its terminal.

Since MSC left Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port four years ago, there has been a dip in volumes at the DP World flagship, which saw throughput of 13.7m teu last year, exacerbated by the loss of transhipment volumes to Qatar during the 2017-21 Gulf Arab boycott, and the continuing sanctions on Iran.

Regional industry insiders speak of a ‘silent war’ developing between Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi, as both ports vie to win business. Because half of the global box-line voyages between China and Northern Europe are said to call inside the Persian Gulf, both facilities are likely to remain increasingly busy.

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