While much smaller, Gulftainer has aspirations of becoming a top 10 player within the next five-to-10 years. ADP, which owns Khalifa, and Mwani Qatar, which is a shareholder in QTerminals, which runs Hamad in Qatar, are just starting out on their global journeys. The latter two companies’ ports in the Middle East are enjoying strong growth (see WorldCargo News, June 2018, p15-16).

Recently, Mwani Qatar has submitted an interest in becoming involved in public-private partnership and concession arrangements for ports in Ukraine. The company is also understood to be working with the Qatari Government in rebuilding infrastructure in Sudan.

Specifically, this means expanding the Red Sea port of Suakin and improving its connections with both the country’s main city, Khartoum, and the landlocked countries of Chad, Central African Republic, Ethiopia and South Sudan, with which it has borders.

Approximately US$4B is being spent on rehabilitating the port of Suakin through a Sudanese (51%) and Qatari (49%) partnership. Primarily, it will involve modernising the port’s cargo handling facilities by refurbishing quays, paving new storage areas, and buying equipment so that the facility can handle cargo including 150,000-200,000 TEU of containers per year.

ADP is known to have studied a number of opportunities in Canada and Africa, as well as in other parts of the Middle East and Asia, but has executed very few to date. Currently it manages Fujairah in the neighbouring emirate of Dubai, having taken over from DP World in September 2017 under a 35-year concession agreement. The company’s only other deal is in the port of Kamsar, Republic of Guinea, where it works alongside Emirates Global Aluminium in managing a general cargo terminal.

DP World’s business development strategy has changed over the past two-to-three years, with group chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, investing more heavily in technology, digital ventures and businesses associated with the total supply chain, rather than just ports.

His approach is based on the group offering its clients valueadded ‘one-stop-shop’ logistics solutions, thus allowing it to get much closer to the importers/ exporters that control the cargo. It also helps diversify the company’s revenue stream and provides a platform for new business.

The latter reasons could be viewed as increasingly significant, given that consolidation in the liner shipping sector has provided ocean carriers with considerably more power when it comes to negotiating new terminal contracts and handling rates. In ports where ocean carriers are partners  and/or equity investors in certain facilities, third-party standalone terminals are vulnerable to losing large chunks of cargo.

In the past six months, DP World has been involved in several important transactions in the distribution, logistics and shipping sectors, including:

• The acquisition of Aarhus (Demark)-based Unifeeder, which is one of Europe’s largest shortsea and common-user feeder shipping lines, for €660M (see WorldCargo News, August 2018, p10).
• Buying a sizeable stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation in India.
• Purchasing Peru’s Cosmos Agencia Marítima.

On the technological front, DP World is exploring how it might use the Hyperloop concept to distribute and collect cargo, and Oracle Cloud Applications to streamline business processes.

Nonetheless, DP World continues to chase concessions and management contracts aggressively. The development of new terminals and the expansion of existing ones are vitally important and will remain fundamental to its business. This year has seen the company secure new deals in Africa, including at Bamako, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Mali, and at Banana in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Overall, this year will see the company invest about US$1.4B in various facilities, including Jebel Ali, Posorja (Ecuador), Berbera (Somaliland), Sokhna (Egypt) and London Gateway (UK).

Sharjah-based Gulftainer also pursues an integrated approach in its investment strategy, forging close relationships with both ocean carriers and beneficial cargo owners in its projects.

The company’s most recent deals have been concluded by GT USA, and involve a 35-year operating concession at Port Canaveral and a 50-year deal to  manage and operate the Delaware state port of Wilmington.

At the latter complex, GT USA will invest US$580M, of which US$410M will be used to build a new 1.2M TEU container terminal. 

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This complete item is approximately 700 words in length, and appeared in the September 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 28. To access this issue download the PDF here.