Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Feb 28, 2012 11:08AM EST
APM Terminals plans to invest about $3 billion in infrastructure development and expansion of its global network of terminals in 2012, the Hague-based terminal operator said Tuesday.
A day after reporting a profit of $649 million for 2011, the division of A.P. Moller-Maersk announced plans to increase its market share of global container volumes.
“If there were such a thing as a market share for expansion, we believe that APM Terminals would be the number 1 global port operator in 2011 in that category,” said APMT CEO Kim Fejfer. “We committed more than $3 billion to infrastructure development and facility expansion in 2011 and expect to do something similar in 2012,” Fejfer said.
The company has refocused its investment plan in recent years on buying or building new container terminals in emerging markets that are growing faster than terminals in mature markets. To that end it has divested some terminals in mature markets.
“Gaining market share is also a long-term ambition for us, but we are only interested in sustainable and profitable growth, not just growth for its own sake,” Fejfer said.
During 2011, APMT secured five new locations as part of its active portfolio management efforts, including Poti in Georgia, Moin in Costa Rica, Callao in Peru, Gothenburg in Sweden and Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico. These new projects complement terminal developments underway in Santos, Brazil; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Wilhelmshaven, Germany; and Vado, Italy. APMT also recently announced upcoming investments in Izmir, Turkey.
Although APMT’s 2011 net profit of $611 million was 23 percent lower than its 2010 profit of $793 million, the 2010 result was heavily influenced by extraordinary items including divestment gains from selling some of its terminals. The profit in 2011 before gains and special items was 24 percent higher than the previous year. Revenue $ 4.7 billion was 10 percent higher than in 2010.
The total amount of containers handled by APMT, weighted by its share of ownership in its portfolio of terminals, increased by 8 percent on a like-for-like basis and reached 33.5 million 20-foot equivalent units.
“This shows that APM Terminals is tracking well towards our long term goal of being the best and most profitable global port operator in the world. Profitability is our license to grow,” Fejfer said.
-- Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.