The new Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi will open in the nick of time next month as the capital's flagship Mina Zayed terminal is expected to reach full capacity before the end of the year.
All shipments handled at Mina Zayed will be gradually transferred to Port Khalifa over the next six months as Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) expects to handle a record number of containers this year.
"We believe we will hit 800,000 this year," said Tony Douglas, the chief executive.
"So far we had 350,00 at the half [year] and we [will] have 450,000 in the second half, which is more than do-able.
"We think we will hit capacity at Mina Zayed this year."
The opening of Port Khalifa in Taweelah on September 1 will mark the end of five years of reclaiming land, dredging and building to produce one of the most advanced port terminals in the region.
"The business already exists," Mr Douglas said.
"It's not like you have to get out there tomorrow and drum it all up. We have the existing [Mina] Zayed business and we have a transfer schedule, liner by liner, customer by customer."
From September, all security will be in place, as well as the customs and border control. ADPC will mark the opening with a ceremony but Mr Douglas declined to disclose details.
Mina Zayed has grown at a rapid pace over the past few years, handling 767,000 containers last year, up 47 per cent from 2010. About 95 per cent of the cargo in containers brought into Abu Dhabi through Mina Zayed is estimated to remain in the emirate.
Like Mina Zayed, Port Khalifa will initially also be a "destination port", with most of the containers coming into the emirate staying there.
But the potential capacity at Port Khalifa is huge and Mr Douglas hopes that as the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) develops around the port, it will have capacity for 15 million containers by 2030.
Currently, Terminal 1 at the port can handle 2.5 million containers, and ADPC has the ability to add a further 2.5 million to capacity at a second terminal at little extra cost.
"We are trending on busting the 2.5 million by 2016 or 2017, so we only then have to put new crane rails in. You don't have to reclaim another island because we've already done it," said Mr Douglas.
If the port eventually is extended to handle 15 million containers, it will become one of the world's biggest alongside those in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Khalifa Port is just one element for Kizad, the overall vision of which is to create a 417 square kilometre industrial and manufacturing hub that equates to two-thirds the size of the island of Singapore. Emirates Aluminium is currently ADPC's anchor tenant at Kizad.
The goal for the industrial hub is to represent 15 per cent of the non-oil GDP of Abu Dhabi by 2030.
"If everything turns out to be the vision in precise detail, you have capacity of 15 million containers, over 30 million tonnes of general cargo and an industrial zone with the scale of 417 sq kilometres," said Mr Douglas.
"That's what you can flex up to but the market is the market. GDP is GDP and consumption is consumption. They are the things that will determine how much you take advantage of."
The container terminal at Mina Zayed will be converted into a cruise liner terminal to help to build the cruise industry, which is another major pillar of Abu Dhabi's Economic Vision 2030.
"Mina Zayed is a fantastic asset," said Mr Douglas. "The area that is currently the container facility, the minute we vacate it, we will develop it for the cruise industry."
The UAE cruise industry hit a setback this year when Italy's MSC Cruises, the first cruise company to use Abu Dhabi as a home port, pulled out less than a year after it started sailing from the capital.
rjones@thenational.ae
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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