Addressing the Global Liner Shipping conference in Dubai and citing over $36bn of port developments in the GCC, Mohammad Al Muallem, svp and md, DP World UAE Region, said: "Regional port infrastructure will keep pace with the increasing demand.”
The bearish trend in oil prices is likely to impact GCC economies but shipping lines and trade will benefit from cheaper bunkers, he added.
Global vessel capacity grew by 6.3% in 2014, to 18.37m teu, he said, while the orderbook stood at 3.39m teu as of mid-January. [ "Vessels of 18,000-20,000 teu are expected to lead the orderbook in the coming months," he said.
He saw freight rates growing marginally by 0.4% this year, while bunker prices had fallen to a six-year low of $242.
Despite Jebel Ali's success as a transhipment hub, which originally flowed from its gateway success, he said Dubai's increasing population and consumption would mean growing origin and destination cargo in future.
As if to underline this success, Jebel Ali port volumes have been growing at the rate of 13% CAGR in 1979-2014, the year it opened until today. Some 12,200 vessels called Jebel Ali last year, and 15.2m teu were handled. Around 180 shipping lines call the port in 90 weekly services.
There is no doubt that Jebel Ali will continue to add capacity at pace. Future blueprints include four larger fingers reaching out beyond the existing Terminal 2 into the sea, continuing Dubai’s penchant for man-made port infrastructure.
Terminal 3 came online in November, with an additional 2m teu capacity, and 2m teu more there are due later this year.
DP World also seeks to offer its customers value-added services, like hull-cleaning when the vessel is alongside, bunker services and waste and sludge collection, tank container cleaning facilities, cargo conversion and value-added logistics services.
In nurturing the supply-chain envisaged when the UAE adds rail to sea, air and road in around 2018, he said the keys to success would be adequate storage facilities, and equipment upgrades as well as unit increases to deal with increasing volumes.
"Collaboration between logistics and the port industries is the key to achieving efficiencies across the supply chain," he said.
The constant pressure to perform does not come without cost. “Our industry has been challenging for many years. We seek stability and then new things are popping up. We are living in a very changing world. There are sleepless nights for some of us, over whether we can cope and deal with it.”
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