FORTH Ports has flagged strong revenues from its Scottish operations as underlying profits before tax climbed more than 30 per cent to £68 million, new accounts at Companies House show.
Profits at the port operator grew as turnover rose 5.7 per cent to £214.4 million. However, business through the Port of Dundee was down because of falling revenue associated with the oil and gas industry downturn.
The accounts state revenues in the firm’s Scottish operations were driven by liquid bulks, piped and general cargoes. And they highlight good growth in revenues at the Port of Tilbury in London.
“Across the business, most of the operations delivered year-on-year growth with the exception of Dundee where North Sea oil related revenues were depressed,” the accounts state. “Gross profit was £101.2m, up £5.7m or six per cent on 2015. This was as a result of the core port and marine operations which benefited from increased revenues and good cost control.”
Mulling the outlook, Forth said the ports industry “tends to be very resilient in terms of economic shocks but is not immune to changes in GDP”. It cited the potential impact of Brexit and risk to the Scottish economy from “ongoing uncertainties relating to greater fiscal and political autonomy” as factors which could affect GDP and economic confidence.
With the North Sea oil and gas sector continuing to be depressed because of low oil prices, Forth plans to diversify into decommissioning facilities. “However, for the longer term health of the Scottish economy there needs to be a vibrant North Sea oil sector,” it added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here