DP World surprises amid gloomy industry Container throughput at terminals owned or part-owned by Dubai's DP World was 10 per cent higher in 2011 than 2010, revealing the continuing strong growth in trade to and from the emerging markets where the operator is focused. The overall figure masked still higher year-on-year growth of 30.5 per cent at the operator's terminals in Africa - in Mozambique, Djibouti, Algeria and Senegal - and of 22 per cent in Latin America, where the operator has facilities in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina and Suriname. The company also predicted that 2012 would prove a still better year in its operations than 2011. "We expect to perform better than we did in 2011 in terms of growth," Yuvraj Narayan, finance director, told a conference call. The upbeat tone in DP World's announcement was in marked contrast to the gloomy tone expected from most container shipping lines in the forthcoming results season. Container shipping lines - including Korea's Hanjin, which reported a $487m annual loss in container shipping on Monday - are suffering from significant ship overcapacity, which is driving down earnings too low to cover costs. The ship overcapacity is particularly acute on routes between Asia and northern Europe, the busiest long-haul container route. Many emerging markets, however, have too little container terminal capacity and strong demand growth, meaning that operators focused on those markets are seeing both strong utilisation of their assets and enjoy robust pricing power. The 10 per cent growth across all terminals where DP World has a stake took the total number of containers handled at its terminals during 2011 to 54.7m twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Like-for-like growth - excluding the effect of new terminal openings - was 9 per cent. The figures at DP World's consolidated terminals - where it holds a controlling stake - were distorted by the sale in March 2011 of a 75 per cent stake in the company's Australian operations. However, it said on a like-for-like basis growth at consolidated terminals was 8 per cent, to 27.5m TEUs. Performance was particularly strong in the United Arab Emirates - home to DP World's biggest terminal, at Jebel Ali in Dubai - where throughput grew 12 per cent to 13m TEUs. Mohammed Sharaf, chief executive, said DP World had seen no sign of the slowdown in demand in late 2011 that saw Asia to Europe container volumes - which had been growing slowly for much of the year - go into decline. "We did not see any negative growth or slowdown," he said. The company said it expected to announce earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in line with market expectations when it announced full-year figures in March. Lower-than-expected financing costs would have a positive effect on pre-tax profits, it added. The shares - which are traded in London and on Dubai's International Financial Exchange - fell 2.5p in London to 700p.