Abu Dhabi Ports has partnered with China’s largest shipping company to more than double the container-handling capacity at Khalifa Port over the next several years.
The deal ties in with Abu Dhabi Ports’ plan, announced last month, to expand the quay wall and dredge the harbour to add an additional 2 metres of depth to allow the world’s biggest ships to dock. The move is part of Abu Dhabi’s broader strategy to develop the port as a regional hub and link it with industrial free zones to expand and diversify the economy.
“The 35-year concession agreement [with Cosco Shipping] is a unique opportunity to expand trade between China and the UAE and strengthen trade in the UAE and other Gulf countries,” said Sultan Al Jaber, the Minister of State and the chairman of Abu Dhabi Ports.
“Abu Dhabi Ports sees the deal as greatly enhancing Abu Dhabi’s role as a key logistics trading hub between East and West and in diversifying the UAE economy,” said Mr Al Jaber, who is also head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).
Khalifa Port currently processes 2.5 million containers annually and it has set a goal to raise annual capacity to 15 million containers by 2030.
Under the terms of the deal, Cosco has committed to building out the container infrastructure and to operate, initially, 1,200 metres of quay and yard with a capacity to process annually an additional 2.4 million standard-sized containers.
Abu Dhabi Ports’ chief executive, Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, said Cosco Shipping is expected to start operations on the first 800 metres of quay in the first half of 2018, with the other 400 metres coming onstream in 2020. In a filing, the company said the Abu Dhabi investment would total US$738 million.
The timing will depend on the expansion project hitting deadline and there are 250 workers already working on the first 1,000 metres of quay wall expansion, which will add 600,000 square metres of space for cargo handling.
Cosco Shipping also has an option to take an additional 600 metres of quay space, increasing the capacity by a further 1.1 million containers, taking total annual capacity to 3.5 million containers.
“The Gulf is representing a couple hundred million [annual containers] volume but there is only one regional hub at the moment and that is Jebel Ali and it has congestion problems, so I think the timing is right,” said Wan Min, the Cosco Shipping president, who signed the deal. “Our goal is to grow Abu Dhabi into another regional hub.”
In spring Cosco formed the Ocean Alliance with three other shippers – CMA CGM, Evergeen Line and OOCL – which from next April will offer a range of services from their combined fleet of 350 ships, and Mr Wan said he sees Abu Dhabi as a key regional link in that strategy.
The Ocean Alliance was a response, in turn, to a similar alliance between the world’s two largest container shippers, Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping, known as the 2M Alliance, which is part of a broader consolidation in world shipping as trade moves more to container-based from bulk. The Abu Dhabi expansion is also designed to allow docking of the world’s largest class of container ships, which can hold as many as 14,000 units.
“We expect that the introduction of Cosco will be a catalyst for investment by foreign companies to set up in the free zone,” said Mr Al Shamisi, referring to the adjacent Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi, Kizad, the 417 sq kilometre industrial zone about 70km north of Abu Dhabi city.
The overall ports and free zone project is scheduled for completion in 2030 and the target is for the free zone to contribute up to 15 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP and meet diversification goals.
The port handles a wide range of goods, from cars to processed foods to chemicals and building goods, with most of the volume transshipment on its way to other GCC countries or further afield.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
WIDE VIEW
The benefits of HoloLens 2, according to Microsoft:
Manufacturing: Reduces downtime and speeds up onboarding and upskilling
Engineering and construction: Accelerates the pace of construction and mitigates risks earlier in the construction cycle
Health care: Enhances the delivery of patient treatment at the point of care
Education: Improves student outcomes and teaches from anywhere with experiential learning
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 2.5/5
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
Zayed Sustainability Prize
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
