Sharjah-based privately owned port operator Gulftainer has reported rising volumes of trade passing through all its ports last year.

Overall trade volumes increased by 24 per cent compared with 2011, with the Sharjah-based Khorfakkan container terminal seeing a 28 per cent increase on the previous year’s figures, recording 3.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of container throughput.

The company’s current portfolio has three UAE ports, Khorfakkan, Sharjah and Ruwais. It also has a port in Umm Qasr in Iraq and Recife in Brazil. At the end of last year, it acquired the concession for Tripoli port in Lebanon and the operator has previously considered acquiring concessions in Russia.