AD Ports Group, Premier Marine Join Hands To Offer Drydocking Services At Khalifa Port

A new joint venture between AD Ports Group and Premiere Marine Engineering Services will give way to a new hub that offers drydocking services at Khalifa Port.

The joint venture between AD Ports Group, a leading provider of global trade, logistics, and industry, and Premier Marine Engineering Service, a UAE-based shipyard company specializing in shipbuilding and repair services to the marine and offshore industries will also offer afloat repairs, shipbuilding and refurbishment services.

The partnership is 51 percent owned by AD Ports Group and 49 percent by Premier Marine, WAM said on Sunday.

The joint venture will be named Safeen Drydocks and will be located at Khalifa Port. It will encompass a 45,000 square meters shipyard and repair facility, 350 meters quay wall for vessel float repair and a floating dry dock for vessel maintenance and refurbishment, the report said.

The partnership was borne out of growing demand from regional and international operators.

"The establishment of Safeen Drydocks is a milestone development for Safeen Group as it significantly broadens our scope of services and ability to serve the regional maritime industry," Capt. Ammar Al Shaiba, Acting Chief Executive of the Maritime Cluster and Safeen Group at AD Ports Group said in this report by The National News.

The partnership comes at the heels of the inauguration of Khalifa Port's expansion project in December which reached AED4 billion or $1 billion. This includes the port's South Quay, Khalifa Port Logistics and Abu Dhabi terminals.

The expansion program has allowed Khalifa Port to grow from 2.43 square kilometers to 8.63 square kilometers while its quay wall has been extended to 12.5km from 2.3km. The expanded Khalifa Port now provides 21 berths and other important services with an estimated value of Dh20.4 billion, Abu Dhabi Ports reported.

Floating drydock services at Safeen Drydocks are expected to open next month while construction for the shipyard has already begun.

Khalifa Port is operated by AD Ports which also operates the deepwater Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi and other ports and logistics parks in the city as well as the multi-purpose port, Port of Fujairah on the eastern coastline of UAE. Earlier in June, AD Ports signed a 25-year agreement with Singaporean one-stop logistics solution provider, Crystal Offshore. The agreement will give way to the construction of a 20,000 square-meter plot of land and an associated quay wall in Khalifa Port which will be used as a base for office facilities and fabrication workshops for marine and offshore vessels, Gulf Business said.