Jul 22 (Khaleej Times): Jebel Ali Port ranked No. 1 in terms of port productivity for handling ships, according to a report by industry analysts Journal of Commerce (JoC).

Jebel Ali recorded 131 moves per ship per hour in 2014, up 10 per cent from 119 in 2013.

Productivity is defined as the average number of moves per hour for each ship. A move is the loading, offloading and repositioning of shipping containers. Gross moves for a ship is calculated by dividing the number of container moves by the number of hours the vessel spends at berth.

The ranking is based on JoC's analysis of more than 125,000 port calls in 2014 that placed Jebel Ali from the UAE and six ports from China in the Global Top 10 for the year.

Asian and Middle Eastern ports recorded the best productivity for ships at berth.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, the port operator, said: "DP World's commitment to be the best in the world is in line with the vision for Dubai laid out by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Jebel Ali Port is also on track to boost its capacity to 19 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) this year.

Once the semi-automated Terminal 3 is complete, Jebel Ali will have a total annual handling capacity of 19 million TEU by the end of 2015.

DP World, led by Jebel Ali Port, handled 15.2 million TEUs in 2014. It handled 3.9 million TEU in the first quarter of 2015, representing growth of 7.7 per cent.

Bin Sulayem said: "Jebel Ali Port remains focused on delivering service benefits to our customers. We work towards improving turnaround times for ships at our berths, which in turn delivers benefits down the supply chain to other stakeholders."