Thursday, November 12, 2026
The news that moves freight
Ocean Nov 12, 2026 · 7 min read

AD Ports and ICTSI: profits up, boxes not

Terminal profits are rising faster than the boxes behind them

AD Ports Group handled 751,000 TEU of containers at its UAE ports in the third quarter. That is 57% fewer than a year earlier. TEU means twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure for container volume. Over the same three months, the profit owed to the group’s shareholders rose 73% to Dh767m, about $209m.

In the same week, Manila-based terminal group ICTSI reported a 20% rise in nine-month net income, to $898.89m. Its volume rose 13%. But on the terminals it ran in both years, volume grew 0.1%.

Our view is simple. Port and terminal groups are making more money, but not because more boxes are moving. On the same cargo base they earn more per box, and in a disrupted market they sell the extra steps that cargo now has to take. Forwarders and shippers pay for both.

What AD Ports actually reported

Two profit figures are going around, and both are correct. Gulf News reported a “record quarterly net profit of Dh975 million”, up 64%. It also reported that the owners’ share of net profit rose 73% to Dh767m. The Dh975m is total profit. The Dh767m is the part that belongs to AD Ports shareholders after other investors in its subsidiaries take their share. The National used the Dh767m figure.

Revenue was Dh7.99bn, up 48%, according to Gulf News. EBITDA, meaning earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a rough measure of operating cash profit, rose 63% to Dh1.97bn.

The split by business is where the story sits. According to The National:

  • Maritime and shipping: Dh4.74bn, up 56%, about 58% of revenue.
  • Logistics: Dh1.96bn, up 76%, 24% of revenue.
  • Economic cities and free zones: Dh690m, up 15%.
  • Ports: Dh798m, up 12%, 10% of revenue.

Gulf News adds that ports EBITDA rose only 8%, to Dh388m. Logistics EBITDA more than tripled, up 246% to Dh116m, but on a margin of just 5.9%. The group’s fleet of bulk, multipurpose and ro-ro vessels grew from 48 to 76.

So the ports arm, the part that actually lifts boxes, grew slowly. The money came from ships, trucking, warehousing and land around the ports.

The Hormuz workaround is a revenue line

AD Ports did not hide why. Gulf News wrote that “Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continued to impact UAE ports operations during the period.” The National reported that since March the group has relied on the “rerouting of cargo operations and feeder shipping services to Fujairah Terminals and Khor Fakkan Port”, along with the “deployment of new land and air bridges.”

In plain terms: cargo that used to arrive at Khalifa Port on a mainline ship now often lands on the other side of the strait. A feeder, which is a smaller ship that shuttles boxes between big hubs and smaller ports, or a truck, then carries it on. Each of those steps is a service someone sells. In this case AD Ports sells a good share of them itself.

The volume data shows the shape of it. UAE container throughput was down 57% year on year but up 30% on the second quarter, The National reported. Gulf News said container feeder volumes were flat year on year at 900,000 TEU and up 22% on the quarter. Bulk and general cargo fell 54%. UAE container capacity use was 29%, up from 22%.

So the feeder business held up while the ports emptied. That is the business model working as designed under stress.

The group’s ports outside the UAE also took up some of the slack. Gulf News reported international container capacity use of 73%, up from 61%. That helps explain how the ports arm still grew revenue 12% while UAE volume more than halved. It also means the ports figure tells you little about what a box through Abu Dhabi now costs. That cost is spread across the feeder, the truck and the warehouse.

Cash came in strongly. Cash flow from operations tripled to Dh2.94bn, according to Gulf News, and net leverage, a measure of debt against earnings, fell to 3.5 times from 4.4 times a year ago. A group in that position has no pressure to cut prices to win back volume.

Gulf News quoted new group CEO Afif Al Yafei describing the period as one of the most challenging in the company’s 20-year history. In The National he said the group “achieved record results during Q3, a testimony to the group’s operational resilience.” Both can be true. The challenge is in the ports. The record is in everything around them.

ICTSI: same terminals, same boxes, more money

ICTSI shows the same pattern without a war-hit home port.

According to the company’s results, published by Hellenic Shipping News, nine-month revenue from port operations was $2.90bn, up 24%. EBITDA was $1.87bn, up 21%. Recurring net income, which strips out a one-off charge on the sale of its Yantai terminal in China, was $913.59m, up 22%.

Total volume was 12,114,429 TEU, up 13%. Most of that growth was bought. ICTSI took over Durban’s DCT Pier 2, now called Durban Gateway Terminal, in January 2026. It took over Batu Ampar in Batam, Indonesia, in September 2025. Leave out those two and the sold Yantai terminal, and volume rose 0.1%.

On that same like-for-like basis, gross revenue rose 15% and EBITDA rose 15%. By our arithmetic, flat volume and 15% more revenue means each box on those terminals earned roughly 15% more than a year ago. For the group as a whole, ICTSI points to tariff increases at some terminals, more ancillary services and a better container mix. It does not break down the 15%.

Costs are rising too. Like-for-like cash operating costs rose 16%. So this is not pure margin grab. Some of the higher charge per box covers higher costs at the terminal. Either way, the shipper’s bill goes up.

ICTSI’s Iraq terminal shows the other side. Volume fell at Basra Gateway Terminal, which the company put down to the conflict in the Middle East. Chairman and president Enrique K. Razon Jr. said: “Our diversified portfolio continues to provide resilience in a more challenging operating environment.” He also said: “Recently added terminals contributed to growth across the Group”.

Third-quarter numbers alone point the same way. Revenue was $984.05m, up 19%. Throughput was 3,998,671 TEU, up 8%. Revenue is still growing more than twice as fast as boxes.

Not every operator turns pain into profit

This is not automatic. DP World, the other big Gulf terminal group, reported first-half 2026 revenue up 13.1% to $12.7bn, according to Baird Maritime in August. But adjusted gross operating profit fell 5.6% to $2.863bn. Jebel Ali stayed fully operational but saw less ship traffic because of the regional conflict. Outside Jebel Ali, like-for-like container volume rose 6.5%.

So a big home port in a disrupted region can drag earnings down. AD Ports avoided that by owning ships, feeders and trucking that earn more when cargo has to go the long way round. ICTSI avoided it by buying new volume and pricing up on old volume. The common thread: earnings growth is coming from price and from extra steps, not from more cargo moving through the same gates.

What this means for forwarders

First, terminal handling charges will not fall back when volumes do. ICTSI’s like-for-like numbers show operators can raise revenue per box by double digits on flat traffic. Lines usually pass those costs on as terminal handling charges (THC) and other local charges. Budget for them at today’s level or higher in 2027 contracts.

Second, Gulf routings now carry extra legs. A shipment to Abu Dhabi may involve a mainline call at Khor Fakkan or Fujairah, a feeder or truck, and extra storage. Each leg has its own rate, its own transit time and its own risk of delay. Quote all-in, door to door, and say which gateway you are assuming. Check whether the feeder or truck is run by the terminal owner itself, because that affects who you negotiate with.

Third, watch Durban. Pier 2 is now under ICTSI. A private operator that is clearly good at lifting revenue per box is running a key South African gateway. Expect pricing and service terms there to change in 2027.

Fourth, expect less public data. AD Ports is being taken private. L’imad, an Abu Dhabi sovereign investment vehicle, has a voluntary cash offer for up to 100% of the company, and the group is “in the process of delisting from the ADX,” The National reported. Once it is off the exchange, quarterly volume and segment numbers like these may stop. Forwarders will have to rely on their own shipment data and carrier notices to read the UAE gateways.

Our call

Our prediction: when ICTSI publishes full-year 2026 results, which we expect by the end of March 2027, like-for-like volume growth for the full year will be under 2%, while like-for-like revenue growth will still be in double digits. If that holds, it will confirm that terminal earnings in 2026 were driven by price per box, not by cargo growth. Forwarders should price their 2027 local charges on that basis.

Sources

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