Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Nov 09, 2011 8:00AM EST
APM Terminals’ third-quarter profit jumped 24 percent year-over-year to $174 million, as the terminal operator grew container traffic by a market-beating 11 percent to 8.6 million 20-foot equivalent units.
The surge in traffic, which APM said outpaced a 7 percent growth across the industry, boosted the A.P. Moller-Maersk-owned company’s revenue 15 percent to $1.2 billion from $1.05 billion in the third quarter of 2010. All regions contributed to the growth, while third-party non-Maersk Line volume was unchanged at 48 percent.
APM Terminals’ rate of return on invested capital grew to 13.5 percent from 11.9 percent a year earlier. This is “very exciting” for a company that is not much more than seven years old, said Nils Andersen, A.P. Moller-Maersk’s CEO.
Nine-month revenue grew 9 percent to $3.4 billion, but profit was down 28 percent at $478.8 million on 5 percent container traffic. Terminals in Africa, China and South East Asia boosted volume by 14 percent in the first three quarters of the year.
During the third quarter APM signed a $992 million contract with the Costa Rican government to build and operate the Moin container terminal on the Caribbean coast. APM also took over container operations in the port of Callao, Peru.
-- Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
