UAE's logistics sector expected to boom: report

DUBAI, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) logistics sector is expected to fuel economic growth over the next five years, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Wednesday in a statement, reported UAE state news agency WAM.

The expansion of projects and new investments in the sector, which is expecting a "positive outlook," are promoting "strong growth in the country's air and sea freight markets."

A recent analysis by the chamber forecasts the UAE's air freight market to expand by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8 percent during 2017-2021.

The analysis also shows demand within the country's air freight market increasing at a CAGR of 8.6 percent between 2012 and 2016.

Dubai International Airport handled 2.6 million tons of cargo in 2016, with a freight volume growth of 3.8 percent compared with that of 2015, the analysis suggests.

Abu Dhabi International Airport, the civil aviation hub in the UAE capital, handled nearly 800,000 tons of cargo in the same period.

The UAE serves as a maritime hub for the Middle East region. In 2016, container port traffic in the UAE amounted to 21.3 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

This figure is expected to rise 5 percent to 22.4 million TEU in 2017, and increase further to reach a record of 28.4 million TEU by 2021.

Container traffic at Dubai's Jebel Ali Port, the biggest man-made port in the world, is forecast to witness a CAGR of around 6 percent between 2017 and 2021.

The UAE is investing 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in Jebel Ali Port, managed by the global terminal operation DP World, to increase the port's total capacity to 22.1 million containers.

In July, five Chinese firms from eastern coastal Jiangsu Province have agreed to invest 300 million dollars in a deal with government-controlled Abu Dhabi Ports Company, a developer of ports and industrial zones, under a 50-year lease agreement.

The five Chinese firms have signed a contract to lease 2.2 square km of the free trade zone of Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Port.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ports is planning to expand Khalifa Port by 100 square km by mid-2018 to accommodate more industries and keep pace with rapid growth within the sector.

The UAE is stepping up efforts to reduce share of oil in the economy to 19 percent from the current 29 percent until 2024, said the UAE Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Sultan Al-Mansouri.