After an impressive rise in non-oil trade last year in Abu Dhabi, market players from within the logistics and transport industry seem to expect even more robust activity in 2012.
Two months ago, the Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi revealed that last year, the full value of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil merchandise trade increased with 27.8% and it reached Dh139.42 billion ($37.95 billion). About 83.5% of that came from imports. Export trade was only 8.2% and re-exports benefited for the balance (8.3%). Imports marked the biggest growth with 34%. That is equal to Dh29.8 billion ($8.11 billion). Re-exports rose with 5.3%, but the exports value fell with 1.1%.
The most imported products were machinery and transport equipment, as well as mechanical appliances and motor vehicles. Last year the amount increased by 25.6%. In addition, there was a major growth in the second-biggest group. Those are the produced goods which are categorized in terms of their material, such as plastic, steel, textile, iron or copper products. Only these two categories made up 74.4% of the total imports value in 2011.
The most exported goods were chemicals and other similar products, machinery and transport equipment, as well as manufactured goods. These groups account for 92.8% of 2011’s non-oil exports. The most popular articles in the machinery and transport equipment were submersible or floating platforms for drilling. In the manufactured goods category, most exported were steel and iron products. Plastics were the main components in the chemicals class.
As far as volume is concerned, imports rose with 27.7%, reaching 16.24 million tonnes. Most of the articles were imported by sea (69.8%). These products also marked the highest increase rate (38.3%). Goods imported by land accounted for 29.8% which is 7.5% more than imports in 2011. In addition, air imports dropped with 12.2% compared to the last year.
The volume of exports also rose with 9% and reached 1.53 million tonnes. About 60% of the export was made by land. In other words, in 2011, export trade by land has increased with 20.1%. Sea exports, which are the second-biggest group, fell with 5.1% and it made up 39.3% of the total volume last year. Air shipments were the smallest category. They made up 0.7% of 2011’s non-oil export volume. Nevertheless, its amount doubled for one year.
A major growth of trade volumes (imports and exports) is expected over the next few years. That activity will be accommodated by the new Khalifa Port. The new port become operational in the first days of September and it will replace Abu Dhabi’s old main cargo port, Mina Zayed. KP is close to the biggest and newest production center of the emirate, Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD).
Eships, a ship operator and owner located in Abu Dhabi, is now importing nearly 1 million tonnes of alumina from Australia per year at Khalifa Port. Eships was found in 1996 by Mubadala Development Company and Abu Dhabi Investment Company, whose owner is the government of the emirate. The company transports articles to many destinations in the world, targeting mainly regions in North Africa, South-East Asia, the Middle East, as well as the Gulf. The firm owns a group of bulk carriers and tankers. It uses its bulk carriers to distribute articles like alumina, iron ore, aggregate and grain.
Three months ago, Eships said that it plans to buy a capsize bulk carrier with 180,000 tonnes of deadweight. Also, the company stated that it may purchase a second such vessel. The total amount of the two carriers is expected to be about $44 million. The manufacturer of the bulk carrier is the Chinese company Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry. The ship should be ready in the first months of 2014. Eships’s CEO, Claus Breitenbauch, stated that now is the perfect time to buy new ships, because of the decreased prices in the ship-building sector. He added the present conditions on the market allow companies like Eships to enlarge their capacity, if, of course, they have the money to do it.
Today banks lend money harder than before, because of the continuing downtrend in the global economy. However, now may be a good time to invest in the logistics and transport industry of Abu Dhabi. That is due not only to the fact that the cost of equipment has dropped, but also to the expected increase of service demand for shipping firms. That is mainly because of the new Khalifa Port and KIZAD’s stable growth.
