AD Ports Group climbs into top 20 of global port operators

AD Ports Group has been ranked in the global top 20 of world container port operators, according to the latest industry survey.

Drewry, a UK firm that tracks the container ports sector, placed the Group in 19th place overall based on container throughput, a measure of volume, using 2022/23 data.

It's after a rapid expansion by the group following a series of new operating concessions and the 2023 acquisition of Noatum, which runs 16 terminals in Spain.

AD Ports Group currently has 33 terminals in eight countries, including the UAE, Spain and Pakistan, and 27 are operational, with new terminals scheduled to come online in the UAE and under concession agreements in Republic of Congo, Egypt and Angola.

In 2023, AD Ports Group reported container throughout of 4.91 million twenty-foot equivalent Units (TEUs), a 13 per cent year-on-year increase.

Total volumes handled at its UAE terminals increased 6 per cent to 4.6 million TEUs. This included six months of contributions from Noatum following its consolidation into the Group. The Ports Cluster contributed 16 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, to consolidated 2023 revenue and adjusted EBITDA.

Ports Cluster growth has continued apace this year. In 2Q 2024, Ports Cluster revenue rose 83 per cent year-on-year, and 13 per cent on a like-for-like (LFL) basis, to AED563 million.

Also driving Ports Cluster growth were contributions from the Group’s management of four berths on the East Wharf of Karachi Port, Pakistan’s most important port, which started last year under a 50-year concession agreement with Karachi Gateway Terminal Limited (KGTL).

The acquisition of Noatum and the new concession in Karachi boosted the capacity of AD Ports Group’s global terminals portfolio by 14 per cent to 9.7 million TEUs in 2023.

AD Ports is leveraging multipurpose terminals as opportunities to develop new markets, with the geographic focus primarily in the Indian Subcontinent, Red Sea, Mediterranean, South Asia and Africa.

In 2023 and H1 2024, AD Ports Group signed agreements to develop and operate multipurpose terminals in Safaga (Egypt), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo) and Luanda (Angola). Preliminary agreements have been signed to develop multipurpose terminals at East Port Said and Sokhna in Egypt, and Chittagong in Bangladesh.

In June 2024, the East Africa Gateway Limited – a joint venture led by AD Ports Group and Adani – acquired a 95 per cent stake in Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS), which operates berths 8-11 at Dar es Salaam ports, Tanzania. These developments put AD Ports Group on a trajectory to increase its terminals portfolio capacity by more than 60 per cent to 14.5 million TEUs over the next five years.