Jafza profit up by 15% as warehouse rents soar

Dubai’s largest industrial zone reported a profit of Dh517.6 million for the six months to the end of March.

Jebel Ali Free Zone’s profit rose 15 per cent for the first half of the year, as it added more than 300 new customers

Dubai’s largest industrial zone yesterday reported profit of Dh517.6 million for the six months to the end of March, compared with Dh448.5m in the same period of last year.

The rise in profit came in spite of a lower number of customer additions. The Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), located on the outskirts of the city, added 313 new customers during the period, compared with 346 in the first half of 2014.

However, this marked an improvement on the second half oflast year, when it made 204 net customer additions.

Jafza’s deputy chief executive Ibrahim Al Janahi said in June that about 80 per cent of the free zone’s land was occupied, with the company looking at vertical expansion as a means of satisfying additional customer demand for warehouse space.

Jafza’s revenues for the six months to June rose by 9 per cent to Dh898m, an increase the company ascribed to “price and volume growth in leasing plots and on-site residential facilities”.

Soaring demand for industrial and logistics space pushed Jebel Ali warehouse rents up by as much as 30 per cent last year, beating residential and retail property asset classes.

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