Dubai Ports World's Jebel Ali facility will have the capacity to handle
80 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) by 2030, up from the
current 11 million TEUs, recording a year-on-year growth of 16 per
cent, a senior executive said on Monday. "This will be fuelled by the
construction of our artificial island and DP World's Terminal Two,
which will be complete, in terms of the entire infrastructure, by the
middle of this year. By starting now, we will be able to add capacity
as it is needed. This will allow us to expand 18 months to two years
ahead of demand," said Mohammed Al Muallem, Dubai Ports senior
vice-president and managing director for the UAE.
"If growth continues at the same pace, we will be able to increase
capacity to 80 million TEUs in Jebel Ali by 2030," he said.The global
port operator plans to add five million TEUs by February 2009 at a cost
of $1.5bn (Dh5.50bn). Of these, two million have already been added and
one million each will be added in August, October and February, Al
Muallem said.
"This expansion will take us into the next three to four years," he said.
At the same time, Dubai Ports has acquired sophisticated cranes that
are expected to cut operational costs. "The revolutionary, tandem-lift
gantry cranes will help DP World raise productivity. They will meet our
target of carrying containers from the port to the airport in one
hour," Al Muallem said.
This
will save Dubai Ports a "significant amount" of money, he said without
revealing details. "Last year, we saved for our customers $12.6m in
terms of the number of hours saved."
Tandem-lift cranes are capable of lifting either two 40-foot shipping containers or four 20-foot containers simultaneously.
"Big
cranes are going to pick up two containers so you are doubling
efficiency. Regular cranes can carry only one," said Al Muallem. The
tandem-lift cranes have been designed specifically for the Jebel Ali
terminal.
Last week, Dubai Ports announced it handled more
than 43.3 million TEUs across its portfolio of 42 terminals in 22
countries in 2007, an increase of 18 per cent over the previous year.
UAE
terminals increased throughput by 19 per cent to 11 million TEUs, with
the two Dubai ports of Jebel Ali and Port Rashid growing at 20 per cent
to reach 10.7 million TEUs. The growth in UAE ports matched the 19 per
cent average set by the Middle East, Europe and Africa region.
"For
our future portfolio, we are talking about handling 53 terminals in 27
countries," said Al Muallem, adding location has played a very
important role in the company's success.
"Other factors
include a politically stable and trade-friendly environment; investment
in people, infrastructure and systems; vision, foresight and good
planning; benchmarking performance; setting productivity and quality
standards; and using a customer-centric approach."
Future
growth will be dependent on the expansion of the re-export market, Al
Muallem said. "Dubai has not capitalised on heavy industries and
exports depend on these kind of industries. So imports will always be
more, according to me. And re-export will grow in Dubai for
neighbouring regions and other countries across the world," he said.
Interestingly,
Dubai Ports' shipping capacity has grown faster than port capacity. The
ports operator has more than 100 ships on order at present, with a
total capacity of more than 10,000 TEUs, according to Al Muallem.
The
Dubai International Financial Exchange-listed company raised $4.96
billion in November 2007, in the Middle East's biggest public share
sale.
The share price has fallen since listing to $0.85 from
the issue price of $1.30 on concerns that slowing trade will affect
international container shipping.
News 
