The shipping and port industry must watch out for new frontiers of growth and emerging new patterns in global trade amid mounting global uncertainties, said Mohammed Al Muallem, senior VP and managing director, DP World, UAE Region.

Al Muallem was delivering a keynote speech at the second Middle East Liner Shipping Conference (MELSC) 2012 held in Dubai.

The two-day annual conference, sponsored by DP World and supported by the Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA), is being held this week under the theme “Resilience Amid Global Economic Uncertainty – What Does the Future Hold for Middle East Liner Shipping?”

Scores of industry leaders including ship owners and maritime analysts from around the region and outside are attending the event.

Addressing the gathering, Al Muallem said, "The Middle East is among those regions that have reported decent trade volumes over the past two years."
 
"DP World’s experience shows that the emerging and developing markets offer new frontiers for growth for the industry as a whole. It is up to us, the shipping industry leaders, to explore these business opportunities," he added.

"While the annual growth rate of global port throughput has almost halved from 14.1 per cent in 2010 to a projected 7.6 per cent in 2011, the change in the Middle East was from 7.5 to 7 per cent for the same period," said the DP World official, citing data from industry analysts Alphaliner
 
DP World, he said, witnessed a return of volumes to the record levels of 2008 as early as in 2010 and posted a 10 per cent growth in gross volumes globally in 2011, with the UAE Region growing 12 per cent to 13 million TEU for the year.

Al Muallem said, “This indicates the resilience of the region’s liner shipping trade in the face of global economic uncertainties. The continued concern over the Eurozone and slow growth in other developed markets has meant there is a need for caution."

"We must step up our efforts, individually and collectively, as industry leaders to look for new cost-effective solutions to encourage supply chain growth," he added.

Referring to the persisting supply-demand imbalance in global container liner capacity Al Muallem stated that there were still challenges ahead at the global level that could potentially impact the region’s supply chain sector.

"The answer lies in pursuing value creation through innovative technology as DP World has done at our flagship Jebel Ali Port. Sustainability can only be achieved through superior performance that benefits customers," he noted.

In December, DP World announced plans to expand capacity at Jebel Ali by a further 4 million TEU to reach capacity of 19 million TEU by 2014. 

Senior company executives are participating in panel discussions at the MELSC seminar including Nichola Siveira, operations support director, DP World, UAE Region, and Raveen Guliani, senior marketing & communication.-TradeArabia News Service