APM Terminals’ increased invested capital to USD $6.2 billion in 2015 as ongoing strategic plans to drive portfolio growth, improve productivity and safety performance, generated USD $4.2 billion in revenue, and a profit for the year of USD $654 million. Portfolio throughput weighted by equity share was 36 million TEUs for 2015, and when not including the divestment or exit of operations in Houston, Jacksonville, and Charleston, USA and a share in the Med-Center Terminal in Gioia Tauro, Italy, volume declined 1.1% from the year prior, while the overall global container market grew by 1.3%. Lower oil prices in 2015 affected APM Terminals bottom line, as reduced oil revenue resulted in declines in import cargo into oil producing countries in West Africa, Russia and Brazil. The strengthening of the American dollar and divestments in 2014, also caused revenue and margins to decrease. APM Terminals’ North American businesses, however, increased volume and storage income compared to 2014. Overall portfolio productivity, measured by crane lifts per hour, showed a 2% year-to-year increase in 2015.
“Despite weaker global container volume and economic growth, our portfolio management and financial performance, including a Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) of 10.9%, remained on track with our long-term strategy to expand our network’s presence and capabilities to better meet the needs of our customers,” stated APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer.
The acquisition of the 11-facility Spanish-based Grup Maritim TCB portfolio, expected to be completed this quarter, will add 4.3 million TEUs of capacity to the APM Terminals Global Terminal Network in Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Brazil. APM Terminals also expanded its interests in port operations beyond the conventional container shipping market with the acquisition of the Vado Ligure Reefer Terminal, in Italy, a 20% share in the new Qingdao Port Dongjiakou Multi-Purpose Terminal, in China, and a 51% majority share in the Cartagena Container Terminal Operator, in Colombia.
APM Terminals was named winner of the 2015 Lloyd’s List Global Awards “Port Operator Award in recognition of establishing new industry standards in the areas of innovation, productivity and investment. APM Terminals Maasvlakte II Rotterdam was named “Innovation of the Year” at the 2015 Containerisation International Awards for its industry-changing technological advances as the world’s first fully-automated and emissions-free, sustainably-powered container terminal. Automation is a key aspect of APM Terminals’ on-going efforts to reduce risk of accidents and fatalities in port and terminal operations.
“We have made clear progress in Safety Performance during 2015, reducing incidents by 66% compared with 2014. Nevertheless, we cannot become complacent,” noted Mr. Fejfer. The company launched a new program to identify and address high-risk safety situations, in an effort to meet its goal of eliminating fatal accidents.
In 2016, the company’s portfolio will grow with the integration of the Grup TCB facilities as well as new deep-water terminals in Izmir, Turkey; Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico and Ningbo, China. Other terminals in the pipeline include Vado, Italy opening in 2017, and Moin, Costa Rica opening in 2018.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.
