By Andrew Cave 

Think of a Middle East port. Any port. Jebel Ali in Dubai might come to British minds but Yanbu and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Mina Sulman in Bahrain and Israel’s Haifa – the other constituents of Worldatlas.com’s March 2018 list of the region’s top five busiest cargo ports  – may well not.

Few people outside the UAE might also be familiar with Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa port or the 418 sq km Khalifa Industrial Zone (KIZAD) that it is being constructed to support. Opened eight years ago, Khalifa did not even rank in Worldatlas’s top ten. Yet its five phases are expected to form one of the world’s largest industrial zones in the world when completed in 2030.

Developed to take over from the neighbouring Mina Zayed Port, Khalifa Port is expected to contribute up to $22 billion a year to Abu Dhabi’s GDP by 2030, or 15 per cent of the emirate’s anticipated non-oil gross domestic product. Currently, the percentage of non-oil GDP represented by Abu Dhabi Ports’ activities is 3.3 per cent, while its operations support more than 56,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Selected to host a multi-billion dollar industrial park and port operation on a greenfield site next to Khalifa Port in Taweelah, KIZAD became Abu Dhabi’s first industrial free zone, offering 100 per cent foreign ownership to any operation located there. Sited on an artificial island halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, KIZAD’s strategic location linking east and west and its sea, air roads and rail links, give investors easy and efficient access to more than 4.5 billion consumers across four time zones.

A 30-year concession agreement signed with MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company to establish a new container terminal plus a major new container terminal and freight station for COSCO Shipping Ports Company will make Khalifa Port one of the top 25 ports worldwide in handling containers by the beginning of next year.

Overall, Khalifa Port’s capacity is expected to increase from 2.5 million 20-foot equivalent units TEU to 8.5 million over five years.

The fledgling port has a lot of expansion ahead before it can rival Jebel Ali, however, with a total cargo volume of 170,000 tonnes – nearly three times that of second-placed Yanbu, Jebel Ali is by far the busiest port in the Middle East and the ninth largest in the world, with annual cargo tonnage of 13.6 million TEU.

Indeed, Dubai is an example of how a long-term port infrastructure project, properly directed and managed, can create and maintain sustainable growth, spreading prosperity and economic wealth.

An important port since the beginning of the 20th Century, Dubai has used revenues from trading activities to build infrastructure over the past 60 years and has now developed Jebel Ali into the largest container port between Rotterdam and Singapore.

KIZAD’s development is much more recent and illustrates the industry’s exposure to geopolitical risks, opening just two years after the onset of the global financial crisis of 2008. In the past few years, there has also been a slowdown in the worldwide shipping market.

However, Capt Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports, the government-owned ports company that has developed Khalifa Port and KIZAD, is hopeful that calm is returning to the sector.

“While there has been some slowdown in the market, there is more reason for optimism in the industry than we have had for several years,” he says.

In the cyclical industry of shipping, analysts predict that bulk carrier and container ship operators will continue to decline. However, Capt Al Shamisi sees this playing to Khalifa’s strengths, with the new port designed to respond flexibly to the change in size, volumes and categories of cargo loads.

Khalifa Port has become the first port in the Gulf to have Capesize vessel capacity through its 2017 partnership with Emirates Global Aluminum. It is also building a position in car transportation through a strategic alliance between Abu Dhabi Ports and Autoterminal Barcelona to create “Autoterminal Khalifa,” a 300,000 sqm car terminal, with more than 550m of dedicated quay.

Capt Al Shamisi says AD Ports intends to continue with a four-pronged approach emphasizing infrastructure, innovation and technology, talent and strategic partnerships.

“Part of our strategy is to attract world-class partners who can accelerate our ambitions and deliver value to Abu Dhabi’s economy,” he says.

“Investors are looking for the highest levels of efficiency and the best value proposition.

“Automation and data is the way forward and relevant entities who are adopting the latest technologies and coming up with innovative solutions will be of prime interest to investors.

“We are focused on innovation, operational excellence and continued expansion of our infrastructure or services to attract additional investment into Abu Dhabi.”