Saudi deal driving force for Gulftainer’s growth

Gulftainer, the Sharjah-headquartered port management and logistics group, is set to witness volumes soar in 2013 as the group continues to expand its global footprint.
As the operator of the largest number of terminals in the Middle East, Gulftainer stands to benefit from the considerable growth in export cargoes from the region.
The rapidly developing petrochemical industries serve as a major factor in offsetting any reduced import volumes.
This announcement by Gulftainer is especially noteworthy, since recent industry trends appear to be moving in the opposite direction.
The Drewry Global Throughput Index, which is published with a two-month lag, is highlighting that the market as a whole has continued to stay almost at the 2012 levels, reflecting almost nil growth.
Furthermore, recent announcements by other international port management companies showing up to 6 percent decreases on the same period last year.
China has also made statements to the effect that they expect 2013 to be “even worse” than 2008 in terms of global shipping.
Gulftainer acquired a 51 percent stake in GSCCO in June 2013, allowing it to assume the full management of three Saudi terminals, located in Jeddah and Jubail.
The company recently bought the controlling stake in Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company (GSCCO) in Saudi Arabia and this new acquisition means that Gulftainer now has a Middle East network that allows access to the Arabian Peninsula from the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf.
The geographical scope of Gulftainer’s terminals and their capabilities not only serves the largest container vessels in the world, but also caters for transshipping to East Mediterranean countries, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Upper Gulf destinations.
Commenting on the company’s recent GSCCO acquisition, Badr Jafar, CEO of Gulftainer’s parent company Crescent Enterprises and vice chairman of Gulftainer, said: “Today, Gulftainer manages more terminals in the Middle East than any other port operator does. Having achieved the reputation among shipping lines of being one of the fastest terminal operators in the world, Gulftainer is able to take its UAE-honed expertise to terminals in other high-growth markets across the World.”
Jeddah’s NCT recently carried out significant expansion, which will substantially improve the capability of Jeddah Islamic Port. The facility currently consists of 1,654 m of quay, 11 cranes, seven of which are super post panamax cranes, with an annual capacity of three million TEUs. Almost 75 percent of all container traffic to the Kingdom is currently handled through the Jeddah Islamic Port, and it is a major trade gateway for the Kingdom’s container traffic.
Located on the Arabian Gulf, Jubail is home to the development of the largest industrial zone in the world covering 8,000 hectares comprising petrochemical plants, fertilizer plants, steel works, and an industrial port as well as the world’s largest desalination plant.
Jubail Port is one of the largest industrial ports in the world and currently handles 52 million tons of cargo per annum, a figure which is expected to grow substantially in the short- to medium-term.
The port is equipped with a 1,282 m quay, five cranes and has a container handling capacity of 1 million TEU per annum.
It is expected that this figure will continue to increase quickly, particularly with the opening of major petrochemical developments in the Jubail Industrial Zone and the planned rail link to Riyadh. GSCCO currently operates 22 commercial berths at the port, including the open sea tanker terminal.
Speaking on the expected growth, Peter Richards, Gulftainer’s managing director, stated: “The benefit of being privately owned allows the Gulftainer Group to be very nimble and react to changing market conditions. Our throughput in 2013 will see an increase of over 30 percent as a result of strategic acquisitions and a very hands-on management team that keep close to our customers to understand and prepare for changes.”
Further afield, Gulftainer has invested in Brazil and Russia to ensure they are well placed to capitalize on the roaring pace of development in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies where annual growth is still reaming strong, compared to the mature economies of Europe and North America.
“We look forward to maintaining the Gulftainer track record established over the past 37 years of delivering growth year-on-year. Historically, organic growth was the Gulftainer engine; today we are adding growth through our carefully considered investments both regionally and more globally. This is an exciting time for Gulftainer and we look forward to increasing our footprint across regional and global markets in the near future,” Richards added.