Abu Dhabi Ports has started operations at Fujairah Terminals after signing a 35-year concession agreement with the Port of Fujairah earlier this year.
"As we mark the official commencement of commercial operations, we express our pride, clear commitment and intention to bring the full breadth of our experience to the table; whether it is container, Ro-Ro, bulk, cargo or cruise, supporting expansion into the Indian sub-continent and East African markets, which is set to accelerate the economic and social development of the emirate, eventually becoming a strategic and vital artery for international trade," said Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports.
At the same time, Abu Dhabi Ports said that since the concession agreement, Fujairah Terminals had signed a memorandum of understanding with Perma Pipe Middle East to receive logistics support from the terminal.
"By choosing to utilise the port in Fujairah for our logistics we will be benefiting from increased time efficiency, cost reduction and a convenient location only 2 kilometres from our officer," said Fathi Elgendy, the senior vice president for Middle East and Africa at Perma Pipe.
_______________
Read more:
Abu Dhabi Ports in Port of Fujairah development deal
Khalifa Port's expansion work to enlarge and deepen the facility are on track
_______________
Abu Dhabi Ports said in June that it had entered a concession agreement with the Port of Fujairah that will grant it exclusive rights to develop port infrastructure, including making berths deeper to accommodate bigger vessels. It will also manage the port’s operations as part of the 35-year concession agreement and is planning to invest Dh1 billion in infrastructure and equipment.
Fujairah has been positioning itself as a regional oil trading hub, which is a national objective for the UAE.
In the past decade, the port has tripled its berths to nine and increased shipping traffic more than eight-fold, with the port handling more than 2,200 vessels last year.
Onshore storage capacity has increased twenty fold in the past two decades to 10 million cubic tonnes and the port operator has plans to increase that to 14 million cubic tonnes by 2020.
"The strong partnership has set in stone strategic and robust plans, in line with our wise leadership's vision to create a sustainable and diversified economy for future generations to benefit from that promise a bright future for Fujairah," Cpt Al Shamisi said.