DP World, the Dubai-based container terminal operator, is planning to double worldwide capacity over the next ten years.
Mohammed Sharaf, chief executive, said part of those plans would include accelerating the expansion of its home port in Dubai, where rapid growth has led to congestion at its Jebel Ali terminal in Dubai. It had originally planned to open a new terminal in 2013 but would now do so earlier.
Sharaf said one of the main questions for container terminal developers in light of current breakneck growth rates was how quickly they could construct new facilities. DP World has already committed to all the projects designed to double capacity and is looking at others suggesting its future growth rates over the next decade will be even greater.
Since it took only about two years to build a new ship and between three and five years to build new port facilities, shipping capacity has been growing far faster than port capacity, putting pressure on the most popular facilities.
DP World faces particular challenges in Dubai, where delays are emerging as a result of congestion created by year-on-year growth currently running at 30 percent. The rapid growth has forced the company to bring forward the second phase of a new terminal, Terminal Two, whose first phase, capable of handling 2.5 million TEUs a year had opened only in August. It is now also accelerating work on Terminal Three, which it had previously thought would not be needed until 2013.
DP World's growth plans are targeting ports which rely on so-called origin and destination traffic going to and from its local region. The focus is aimed at overcoming the operator's reliance on trans-shipment business being moved between different ships - the traditional main business at Dubai.
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