Abstract
The major development within the UAE' s maritime sector over the quarter is the
news that one of the
emirates' main shipping companies, Gulf Energy
Maritime, is continuing its fleet expansion despite the
downturn in trade
volumes and has taken delivery of its third newly built vessel this quarter.
The
company is expecting three more new builds to be delivered over the
rest of 2009.
BMI predicts that the UAE' s maritime sector will not be hit
as hard by the downturn as some of its peers,
and we forecast that
throughput growth at the country' s ports will slow rather than decline. In May
2009
we reported that Q109 data from the port of Mina Zayad in Dubai
showed a growth of 19%. Over the
whole year, BMI forecasts that the port' s
total throughput will grow by 2.9%, down from the 91.1%
growth that the
facility recorded in 2008.
The UAE' s other main port, Jebel Ali, is
expected to fare slightly better, with container throughput set to
grow by
9% in 2009. The port is now the main facility in Dubai since the operations of
the port of Rashid
were transferred to it.
BMI predicts that
throughput at both ports will pick up again in 2010 and continue to increase
over the
mid term (2010-2013). This trend mirrors that of the UAE' s trade
sector as a whole. We predict that the
country' s imports will grow by 3%
in 2009, while exports will decline by 4.2%. Trade will start to pick up
again in 2010 when total trade is expected to increase by 7.6%. An annual
average total trade growth of
8.1% is forecast for the rest of the
mid-term.
As well as an in-depth analysis of the UAE' s shipping sector,
BMI' s Q309 UAE Shipping Report offers a
global overview of the dry bulk,
liquid bulk and container sectors, and overviews of the 11 largest
shipping lines and their strategies over the quarter to weather the downturn
in trade volumes.
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