DUTCH tank terminal operator Royal Vopak has made a good start to the year with first quarter operating profit up 15% to €79.2m on the back of high occupancy rates. The Dutch firm is already predicting that it will see a 10% rise in operating profit this year, excluding exceptional items. In 2007, Vopak achieved a €272.9m operating profit. Vopak Chairman John Paul Broeders said: “The operating profit for the first quarter creates a sound basis for the remainder of this year. This quarter, we commissioned new storage capacity totalling 785,000 cu m in many places, including a number of projects for oil products at the Sebarok (Singapore) and Rotterdam terminals, as well as our joint venture in Fujairah. “We recently added one new 60,000 cu m expansion, effective 2009, at the Vlaardingen terminal to our project list to satisfy the demand for additional capacity for biofuels, among other things.” Vopak will add more than 2.7m cu m of storage capacity during 2008 to 2010.