DP World sees challenging Q4 as YTD volumes fall

DP World reported on Tuesday that container volumes for the nine months to the end of September were down eight percent on than the same period last year.

The Dubai port operator, in a statement on Nasdaq Dubai's website, added that the drop reflected "a stronger third quarter" with volumes only 6 percent lower than the third quarter last year.

Mohammed Sharaf, CEO, welcomed the third quarter improvement but warned that the company still faced a challenging final quarter of the year.

Volumes in the UAE region were in line with the same period last year, the company said, resulting in volumes for the first nine months of the year down only 5 percent.

"In August the region handled just over a million TEU’s reflecting the continued resilience of the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and African regions to the global economic downturn," the statement added.

Mohammed Sharaf, CEO, said: “We are encouraged that trading in the third quarter of this year has seen volumes begin to stabilize after the significant declines of the first half.

"We are beginning to see early signs of stability across the industry and container volumes across our three reporting regions all reported more containers handled in the third quarter this year than last year.

“The final quarter of 2009 will continue to present challenges with tough prior year comparators particularly in the UAE region where we also anticipate a continuation of significant non-container revenue declines.

"More widely our terminals remain acutely focused on maintaining revenues and managing costs and we continue to believe we will deliver 2009 results in line with market expectations.”

Separately, DP World said on Tuesday that chief financial officer Yuvraj Narayan would step down at its board meeting in December.

Narayan will join DP World's parent company, state-linked Dubai World, as its chief financial officer, the firm said in a statement posted on Nasdaq Dubai.

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