Abu Dhabi Ports, the developer, operator, and manager of the ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone in the Emirate, has seen a successful first half of 2016 according to recently announced results.

This comes in parallel with the prosperous economic growth witnessed in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, reaffirming its prestigious commercial status across the region.

The company has experienced continuous growth as the UAE’s maritime trade hub with major growth across general and bulk cargo, container volumes, and ro-ro traffic. Since January 2016, Abu Dhabi Ports has witnessed a 77-percent jump in net profit and 20 percent revenue growth while earnings margin exceeded 40 percent, reflecting a 15 percent increase.

At the Khalifa Port Container Terminal (KPCT), which is operated by Abu Dhabi Terminals, container volumes increased by 11 percent in the first half of the year. Bolstered by rapid growth in polymer exports and transshipment activity across the gulf, 699,776 TEUs were handled in the first six months of 2016, up from 629,941 TEUs in the same period of 2015.

Building on the infrastructure of Abu Dhabi to keep abreast with its economic growth, Abu Dhabi Ports successfully completed the implementation of the Terminal Operating System (TOS) in Zayed and Musaffah ports. TOS is a database providing bookings, detailed tracking for containers and Gate Transaction tracking. Increasing the attractiveness of the ports to both sea- and land-based users, TOS acts as an integrated business platform with physical and technological infrastructure and processes.

Ro-ro saw new levels of productivity with a record average of 206 cars handled per hour in April 2016 alone, demonstrating the growth of Abu Dhabi as a logistics hub for this industry.

During the first half of 2016, Abu Dhabi Ports enjoyed an increase in ro-ro volumes of four percent compared with the same period in 2015, with 58,000 vehicles passing through the ports so far in 2016.

The amount of new land leased in Khalifa Industrial Zone is over 1.5 million square meters, 50 percent up on this time last year. Industries in Khalifa Industrial Zone continued to expand with 82 Standard Musataha Agreements (SMAs), a land lease and ownership contract, at an investment amount of over $11 billion to date. The area has now leased 145 million square feet of land, 20.5 million of which is leased in the trade and logistics zone. There has also been a 17 percent year-on-year increase in the number of investors from 2011, with a value exceeding $6 billion.

Ten facilities in logistics, warehousing, food, printing and packaging, aluminum, workshops, repairs, and mixed use are already operational, while 13 more will be operational by December 31, 2016.

Since the beginning of 2016, the container business has seen the addition of new liner calls, providing added regional connections, primarily the Indian subcontinent, to support the transshipment business for the KPCT.

Despite a bleak outlook for world trade, the January-to-June 2016 volumes grew by 11 percent over the same period in 2015.