duisport Group container turnover up up by 2 percent to around 4.3 million TEU in the 2021 financial year
The duisport Group continued to perform successfully in the second year of the Covid pandemic, according to the company's release. Although the 2021 financial year was strongly shaped by the effects and restrictions surrounding the third and fourth waves of the pandemic as well as globally disrupted logistics chains and a massive shortage of raw materials and preliminary products, duisport’s broadly positioned business model delivered a convincing performance with clearly noticeable resilience. Against this background, the increase in earnings of more than 33 percent with an increase in sales of almost 19 percent is all the more impressive.
At EUR 346.8 million, the duisport Group’s sales in 2021 were significantly above the previous year’s figure of EUR 291.7 million – an increase of 18.9 percent. This also clearly exceeded the forecast of EUR 315 million. As a result of the increased sales, the EBITDA improved to EUR 54.6 million (2020: EUR 44.3 million). The result before taxes is EUR 29.5 million, which is thus above the previous year’s value of EUR 22.3 million. The annual net profit after tax grew by 33.1 percent from EUR 14.2 million to EUR 18.9 million.
In the 2021 financial year, container turnover rose again slightly by 2 percent to around 4.3 million TEU (previous year: 4.2 million).
Last year, the duisport Group handled a total of 58.2 million tons of goods by ship, rail and truck. All the ports of Duisburg together handled a total of 111.1 million tons (previous year: 110.4 million tons).
In the Infrastructure and Superstructure business segment, the duisport Group generated revenues of EUR 55.6 million, therefore exceeding the same level of the previous year (2020: EUR 53.6 million). This is attributable to new leases as well as lease revisions.
In the area of Logistics Services, sales increased by an impressive 35 percent to EUR 116.7 million (2020: EUR 86.4 million). The decisive factors for this development include further significant increases in the forwarding services of duisport agency GmbH, the expansion of activities in Poland, and the expansion of the project business of duisport consult GmbH.
The Packing Logistics business segment achieved a sales volume of EUR 94.6 million in 2021, having generated revenues of EUR 86.4 million in the previous year. However, the pre-Covid level of EUR 102.0 million from 2019 has not yet been regained.
Contract Logistics generated sales revenues of EUR 29.5 million (2020: EUR 33.8 million). The drop is primarily associated with the expiry of the contract with a long-standing major customer at the end of 2020. However, new activities were able to partially compensate for this.
In addition, the duisport Group generated miscellaneous sales in the amount of EUR 18.1 million (2020: EUR 1.5 million), primarily resulting from the sale of a building.
In the second year of the pandemic, duisport again increased its spending on property, plant and equipment and financial investments, investing a solid EUR 42 million (2020: EUR 38.6 million). On top of this, EUR 14.1 million was invested in maintenance work on the infra- and superstructure of the Port of Duisburg. A total of EUR 56.6 million was thus invested in increasing the performance of duisport in 2021.
Goods traffic with China also continued to develop favorably. In 2021, over 2,800 shipments were handled via the New Silk Road, which corresponds to an increase of twelve percent. The TEU volume, which had skyrocketed in 2020, not only continued at a very stable level in 2021, but actually rose by 26 percent. This was in no small part due to improved utilization of the trains in both directions. On average, there were around 60 arrivals and departures per week in Duisburg, with over 70 at peak times.
So far, trains arriving in Duisburg from China via Russia, Belarus and Poland via the New Silk Road have largely been running on schedule. Yet some customers have reduced their bookings or switched shipments to maritime transport. A reliable prediction regarding further developments cannot be made at present. In general, train transports to and from China are an important and, so far, growing business area of the duisport Group, but they are also only a sub-segment.
The Supervisory Board and the shareholders decided in March of this year to terminate all business activities in Belarus. duisport will withdraw from both the minority interest (0.59 percent) in the international development company of the Great Stone Industrial and Logistics Park and the shareholding in Eurasian Rail Gateway CJCS (38.9 percent), which has planned the construction and operation of a bimodal terminal. A representative office in Minsk has already been closed.
The duisport Group continued to hold investments in a variety of operating companies at home and abroad in 2021, including in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and China. In 2021, Duisburger Hafen AG acquired a shareholding in the Port of Trieste. This way, the duisport Group will strengthen its presence there and will benefit in future from the flow of goods from the Mediterranean region to Europe.
