DP World profits down 46%

DP World profits down 46%    Dubai-based international container terminal operator DP World, saw profit fall 46 percent to $333 million in 2009.
   The company's throughput fell 8 percent to 43.4 million TEUs, while revenue slid 14 percent to $2.8 billion.

Sulayem

   “In an industry such as ours, where the average terminal concession is granted for in excess of 25 years, we must continue to focus on, and invest for the longer term,” DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said in a statement.
   'Taking the macroeconomic and other factors into consideration, DP World has performed remarkably well,' the company said in a statement. 'The focus on maintaining and generating incremental revenue, improving efficiencies and cutting costs across all container terminals has mitigated the impact of non-container revenue declines.'

Sharaf

   'Our stronger second-half performance reflects the hard work of our management teams, with higher volumes, improved utilization rates across the majority of our terminals and better than expected cost reductions,' said DP World Chief Executive Mohammed Sharaf. 'Taken together, these led to an improvement in underlying EBITDA margins in the second half, which will provide a solid platform to build on as we go into 2010. In the first two months of 2010 we have seen 4 percent volume growth across our portfolio from a very low base last year.'