Harbouring opportunities

The majority of work on the port has been completed.
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As one of the GCC’s biggest developments of the year, the multi-billion dollar Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) project is one that no contractor can afford to ignore.

Covering a total area of 420km², it is four times the size of Abu Dhabi island, two-thirds the size of Singapore and 25% of the land mass of Greater London.

With as much as $8.5 billion in construction projects already committed, and another $18.5 billion yet to be awarded for Phase 1 alone, the opportunities for contractors and investors are immense.

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Before hearing about the project’s unique characteristics and contract opportunities, not to mention the records broken and construction milestones achieved during development so far, attendees at this month’s Abu Dhabi Ports Press Conference were keen to know why such an expensive project was necessary.

Whilst the property slowdown in the UAE has created an excess of general cargo that would normally be exported, according to the audience, there is also a perfectly decent, main port in downtown Abu Dhabi already.

According to developer Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC), the main reason for the project was to diversify both the Abu Dhabi and UAE economies, with a mega-scale industrial zone reflecting the Abu Dhabi 2030 economic vision by bringing a wealth of new business and manufacturing opportunities to the emirate.

In this sense, the port is set to perform a secondary role to the industrial zone, facilitating its operation by allowing manufacturers access to seawater cooling and supplies by boat.

“Abu Dhabi Ports Company plays a fundamental part in the diversification of the UAE’s economy,” says ADPC’s new CEO Tony Douglas. “The Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone will be particularly important in presenting a breadth of opportunities in line with the Abu Dhabi 2030 strategy.”

Separately, company executives were also keen to stress an imminent need to increase the capacity of Abu Dhabi ports in preparation for an extra 2.6 million tonnes of general cargo expected to hit UAE shores in 2011.

While the existing port Mina Zayed has sufficed up until now, executives from Abu Dhabi Terminals made clear that it had a rather limited capacity today considering the huge influx of incoming cargo that would be witnessed in the coming years.

This being the case, conference attendees were eager to understand why the existing port could not just be expanded.

Douglas was quick to respond: “Mina Zayed is the main downtown port and principal port of Abu Dhabi, about 3km away from Emirates Palace. Obviously when it was built in the late 60s, the head of Abu Dhabi island was absolutely a logical place to put a port, but decades later, it’s a different story.