The first quarter witnessed a steady start to the year and all three regions delivered growth, especially our terminals in Europe and the Americas. UAE also stabilised and handled 3.7 million TEU, growing 1.8% year-on-year in 1Q2017.
At a consolidated level, our terminals handled 8.7 million TEU during the first quarter of 2017, a 19.9% improvement in performance on a reported basis and up 1.6% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. Reported consolidated volume in the Asia Pacific and Indian Subcontinent region was boosted by the consolidation of Pusan (South Korea) at the end of 2016.
Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem commented:
“There are signs of a gradual improvement in the market environment in 2017 and our portfolio has had an encouraging start to the year delivering ahead-of-market growth. The robust performance was delivered across all three regions, which once again demonstrates that we have the relevant capacity in the right markets.
“We are pleased to see volumes recovering in the Americas while our new terminals in Europe continue to deliver growth. Encouragingly, UAE volumes have stabilised and as we move through 2017, we continue to expect our new developments in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Nhava Sheva (India), London Gateway (United Kingdom) and Yarimca (Turkey) to drive growth in our portfolio.
“The first quarter volume performance demonstrates that our portfolio is well positioned to deliver growth, and our continued focus on delivering operational excellence in addition to investing in relevant capacity should continue to ensure that we remain the port operator of choice across geographies. Given the encouraging start to the year, we remain well placed to meet full year 2017 market expectations.”
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