Special Features
Dubai Maritime Industry
Dubai leads the UAE in its race towards becoming one of the Middle East’s leading hub for shipbuilding and repairing. At the end of 2006, Dubai’s maritime industry consisted of about a hundred companies, employing about 10,000 workers.Leading the industry is Dubai Drydock, one of the world’s largest ship repairing facilities and the premier yard between Europe and the Far East. Conceived and established in 1983 as a shipbuilding facility, it has expanded its operations to include ship conversion and building and offshore construction. It employs about 150 technical staff and 5,000 production workers.
Maintained by the Government of Dubai, JADAF Dubai offers dry docking and ship repairing and maintenance facility and is host to more than 130 offices and showrooms of companies providing marine services; 50 offices providing spare parts for oilfields; 7 offices in marine paints; and about 30 offices of in machinery/equipment rentals.
Conceived to relocate JADAF Dubai ship repair yard and to provide excellent environment to the global maritime industry, the Dubai Maritime City is currently being constructed. Designed to become a peninsula reclaimed from the sea, it will consist of 2.16 million square meters of reclaimed land with open sea access and providing stunning location to maritime businesses.
At the end of 2006, only two maritime companies operating in Dubai are wholly foreign-owned, being branches of world-renowned maritime industry players – NICO INTERNATIONAL and GOLTENS COMPANY LIMITED (DUBAI BRANCH), while the rest are all national companies. However, of the 308 persons and entities investing in the industry, 120 are foreign nationals while 188 are UAE nationals. In terms of activity, only 15 percent of the companies are engaged in ship building and repairing while the rest are into boat building and repairing. Most companies are catering to the domestic market, with only about a fourth exporting. In 2006, exports accounted for only about 5 percent of the value of sales of the industry.
Dubai’s success in its bid for maritime leadership in the Gulf is closely associated to the city’s ultra-modern infrastructure for ocean-going trade and transport. Operated by DP World, one of the largest global ports operators, the Dubai Ports form one of DP World’s flagship facilities and have been ranked as 8th Top Container Port Worldwide, having handled 8.92 million TEUs in 2006 which representing a 17% annual increase in throughput. Total vessel calls numbered about 17 thousand, 43 percent of which were container vessels.
Despite the escalating property rentals which have pushed up the cost of maintaining presence in Dubai, many businesses still consider the city as an advantageous location owing to the modern maritime facilities and services available, government support to the industry, friendly business environment and access to the pool of technical and skilled workers in the neighboring Asian countries. The annual Dubai International Maritime Awards is but one of the programs actively pursued by the emirate to put Dubai in the forefront of the global maritime industry.
However, the local educational system is not supportive of the industry, as evidenced by the lack of technical and maritime schools and training institutions. Most companies do on-the-job training and R & D units are virtually non-existent.
Future prospects The strategic location of Dubai and the current boom in the global shipbuilding as trade accelerated between the East and the West ensures the emirate’s role as international maritime hub. The expansion of Dubai Drydock is expected to further increase its capacity for ship building and repairing.
The developments in the Dubai Maritime City are ongoing. When the projects are mainstreamed, it is expected to become a haven for maritime industry investors, both as place for work and for living. The Academic Quarter of the planned City is designed to address t
