Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem

Group chair and CEO DP WORLD

What do you predict will be the key trends and events that will shape the regional logistics industry in 2017?

While we don’t forecast, Drewry says 2017 global port throughput will be 2.4%. Drewry’s forecast for 2017 global fleet growth is 5.9%. Short term turmoil caused by Hanjin’s bankruptcy (i.e. $14 billion-worth of goods have been held up in the supply chain) is temporary. Drewry believes it signals the bottom of the market. Meanwhile, conditions for recovery in the medium term are improving, so long as carriers encourage them wisely.

The industry is also consolidating with mergers, acquisitions and alliances. Global freight rates have been forecasted by Drewry to improve by 8% in 2017 after four years of decline, leading the industry to potentially make a small $2.5 billion profit in 2017.

For DP World, we expect Expo 2020 and the opening up of new markets to drive medium term growth. Our confidence in the region was boosted further when our recently raised $1.2bn for a seven-year sukuk to be listed on NASDAQ Dubai received such strong investor interest that it was two times oversubscribed, receiving more than $2bn in bids. This is a clear sign of support for the economic fundamentals of Dubai and the UAE.