Khalifa Port Continues To Meet Shipping Industry Expectations

Abu Dhabi’s new state-of-the-art, Khalifa Port, continues to meet and even beat expectations. The deep-water port, looks like it’s on track to surpass their initial forecast of 1 million containers TEUs handled in it’s first full calendar year of operation. It opened in September of 2012 and so far all the new technological advancements incorporated into the modern structure has performed really well and for the most part, all operations have been running smoothly.

It is essentially a man-made island port, built in part to ensure the capability to accommodate the world’s largest container vessels. Another reason it was designed and constructed in such a manner is to allow the port plenty of room for expansion into the future. At this point, the port has a capacity to handle 2.5 million containers with the ultimate goal to expand the port to be able to accommodate 15 million containers by the year 2030. That represents an increase of 600% and the officials at the Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) believe it’s entirely possible that with the right investments in place, there will be that much traffic moving through it’s operation.

ADPC acting CEO, Captain Mohammad Al Shamisi, stated recently "We are a focal point for regional trade. We have invested heavily in new infrastructure and the latest technologies. As a result we have been able to develop our position as a logistics platform for a much wider region." The port operator is trying to establish more direct routes for it’s merchants to make it more enticing and beneficial as well as cost-effective. Currently ADPC has 64 direct destinations and is looking to add the Americas to their growing list, that already includes most parts of Asia, Europe, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Africa and the Middle East.

Khalifa Port is quickly starting to shape up as a hub port for the gulf region and with the emerging markets continuing to grow and expand their consumer markets, the port will indeed be in a strong position to capitalise on the future growth prospects as demand increases. The UAE is no doubt going to be a leading port destination in the new future global economy. ADPC’s massive investments into the building of the 21st Century port have already begun to show great return on the investment. As the global economy continues to grow, Khalifa Port will also keep growing to meet whatever the global demand may be.