Friday, November 15, 2013

New Freight and Logistics Hubs Begin Construction with an Aviation Bias

Dubai Sees Three Significant Developments as the UAE Continues to Press Claims as the Place to be
Shipping News Feature

DUBAI – The Gulf state is the place to look to apparently at the moment as regards logistics development, with DP World’s London Gateway project taking its first tentative steps in Britain back home in the UAE Dubai World Central (DWC) is proceeding in its efforts to develop the first global ‘aerotropolis’, a hub for the world’s freight and passenger traffic, whilst elsewhere in the Dubai Airport Freezone (DAFZ) another new building is rising to accommodate another well-known player in the shipping and forwarding business.

The DWC development announced that Danzas AEI Emirates LLC, a joint venture between DHL Global Forwarding and the Al Tayer Group, resurrecting the old name which Deutsche Post abandoned in 2005 when it amalgamated three acquisitions. The new development comprises two buildings for the company’s airfreight and chemical logistics facilities and is expected to cost $40 million, with completion set for November 2014.

The chemical logistics hub is set to be a honeycomb arrangement covering 12,000 square metres specifically designed to separate effectively different classes of hazardous goods plus an overflow area for non-hazardous items of around 10,000 square metres. The airfreight handling terminal is to be 15,000 square metres consisting of two equal sized units and is intended to act as an intermodal exchange hub for ocean freight consignments shipping via Jebel Ali and road haulage shipments using the Danzas distribution network.

The airfreight facility will enable Danzas to deal more effectively with new and existing contracts involving movements via Al Maktoum International as well as the Dubai International airport. DWC is supported by the government of Dubai which shows every sign of attempting to dominate regional freight and passenger shipments in the face of some stiff competition from its neighbours.

Ground was also broken this week on the new aerospace hub being developed by French forwarding group SDV. The site, situated on a 5,000 square metre plot in the Dubai Airport Freezone (DAFZ) is part of SDV’s strategy to continue its aeronautics platforms’ development located in strategic areas. This policy is intended to ensure a continuous spare parts management and aeronautics after sales services for all the group’s aviation customers no matter where the need arises. The new building should be operational by the second quarter of 2014.

Photo: Executives at one of the new Danzas buildings ceremonially begin work on the site.