Impressive ICTSI results show ports may be a smarter investment than shipping

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Unlike its ocean carrier customers, whose average return on capital is in the low single-digit range, global ports operator International Container Terminal Services Inc [ICTSI] is, like its peers, still posting impressive year-on-year profit growth.

At 4,628,117teu, the Philippines-based terminal operator handled 13% more containers in the first nine months of 2013 than it did in the same period of the previous year, improving its net profit by 22%.

With a portfolio of 27 marine terminals in 19 countries, ICTSI attributed most ...