Good morning, lovely people. We’re ushering in the new month — and season — with a wealth of updates from across the region, in sectors from aviation to storage and warehousing. We expect the newsflow to continue to pick up as the summer lull dies out.

THE BIG LOGISTICS STORY- Abu Dhabi International Airport is inaugurating its long anticipated Terminal A in November. Over in Iraq, the IFC is now Iraq’s advisor for a potential public-private partnership (PPP) to revamp Baghdad International Airport.

^^ We have everything on this story and more in the news well, below.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

The UAE’s Comprehensive Econ omic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs) with Turkey and Indonesia came into effect on 1 September,Emirati news agency WAM reports. The UAE-Indonesia CEPA agreement was inked in July of last year to boost annual bilateral trade to USD 10 bn over the next five years by removing barriers to trade, with customs duties no longer applying to more than 80% of UAE exports to Indonesia. The agreement also looks to increase the value of trade in services to USD 630 mn by 2030. The UAE-Turkey CEPA, which was ratified back in June in a bid to strengthen bilateral non-oil trade to USD 40 bn over the next five years, will see decreased custom duties on 82% of product lines. The country also saw its CEPA with Israel coming into effect earlier this year and one with Indonesia last year, while a CEPA with Cambodia was finalized earlier this year.

The UAE is now eye ing its sixth CEPA agreement with New Zealand, after kicking off preliminary discussions, WAM reports. UAE Foreign Trade Minister Hani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi met with New Zealand's Trade and Export Growth Minister to discuss inking a CEPA and strengthening bilateral economic cooperation, WAM adds. Non-oil trade between the two countries reached a total of USD 805 mn in 2022, increasing 7% y-o-y. The UAE currently accounts for 2.5% of New Zealand’s foreign trade.

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammed Al-Sudani has inaugurated the Safwan border crossing with Kuwait following extensive upgrades to increase its capacity, INA reports. The revamped crossing spans 72 acres, and is designed to accommodate more cargo trucks and up to 1k daily passengers. It also now has advanced customs technology for quicker clearance of goods, revenue improvement, and congestion reduction. The project aims to enhance economic, commercial and tourism ties between Iraq and Gulf states.

Iran is ramping up its maritime projects: Iran has inaugurated some 26 port and maritime projects in southwest Iran in a bid to boost commercial activities at the country’s ports of Imam Khomeini, Khorramshahr, and Abadan, Tehran Times reports. The projects include mechanized grain terminals, provision of gas supply to Imam Khomeini port, construction of a waste facility for ships, electricity supply to grain pumps, and deploying 120 polyethylene ocean buoys, the outlet writes.

Another step closer to a Saudi-Israel detente? Reports coming out of Israel claim a delegation of top American officials is set to visit Riyadh this week to discuss a potential normalization agreement between the kingdom and Israel. White House MENA coordinator Brett McGurk and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf are among those expected to travel, according to reports, which also claim that a Palestinian delegation is set to visit Riyadh to discuss the normalization agreement at the same time.

Erdogan to discuss grain pact with Putin: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attempt to persuade Russian leader Vladimir Putin to re-enter the Black Sea grain pact with Ukraine during talks in Sochi this week, Reuters reports. Russia pulled out in July of the Black Sea grain pact, which allowed Ukraine to export grain and other food commodities via its Black Sea ports, threatening to provoke a fresh global food crisis.

The FMs already met last week, to no avail: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan last week to discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain pact, Russian news agency TASS reported last week. The new initiative would Russia send some 1 mn tonnes of grain to Turkish plants to undergo processing before being dispatched to countries with the highest demand, Lavrov said. Qatar could also contribute by funding the agreement, he added. Lavrov also said that the original Black Sea grain pact will not be restored without concrete guarantees from Western countries for its own exports, Euronews reports.

MEANWHILE- Russia continues to batter Ukrainian ports: Russia launched a drone attack against Ukrainian port facilities on the Danube River in Odessa yesterday, injuring at least two people and damaging infrastructure, Reuters reported, citing statements by Ukrainian officials. The Danube has become Ukraine’s principal gateway for grain exports after the collapse of the UN-brokered Black Sea grain agreement. Recent weeks have seen Russia repeatedly attack Ukrainian grain export infrastructure along the waterway.

AND MORE IRANIAN VESSEL SEIZURES- Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized a ship in the Arabian Gulf carrying “smuggled fuel”andapprehended its four crew members, Iranian media outlet Fars News reports. Over 50k liters of smuggled fuel were discovered on the vessel, according to the head of the judiciary of the Hormozgan province Mojtaba Kahramani. The vessel has been confiscated and the fuel will be directed back to the country’s distribution network, France24 reports. Where the ship came from and when the operation took place have not been disclosed. This development follows a move by the US to increase its military presence in the Gulf in response to Iran detaining and intercepting ships in the region.

WATCH THIS SPACE #1- Iran + India to finalize Chabahar port agreement within a month: India and Iran have mostly settled issues to do with the terms of a contract for the development of India’s Chabahar port, with only one paragraph remaining to be settled, Iran’s state-aligned Tasnim news agency quotes Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization Chief Ali Akbar Safaei as saying. The issue with the remaining paragraph of the USD 85 mn agreement is expected to be settled in less than a month, Safaei adds. The contract will take the form of a build-operate-transfer agreement, Tasnim reports.

ICYMI- The two countries, which have been relying on short-term one-year agreements for the development and running of the terminal at Chabahar Port, have been looking to implement a longer term, self-renewing 10-year agreement The two sides recently agreed that they would not turn to commercial arbitration for disputes that arise between users and operators of the port.

WATCH THIS SPACE #2- The Shalamcheh-Basra Railway connecting Iran and Iraq will be operational within the next two years, Tasnim news agency reports. The 32 km railway, a joint project between Iran Railways and the Iraqi Railways Company, will connect Iran’s Shalamcheh town to Iraq’s city of Basra, linking Iran with Jordan, Syria, and other neighboring countries.The construction of infrastructure and buildings for the railway will be carried out by the state-owned Iraqi Republic Railways Company. The first phase of the project will involve a mine clearing operation, after which Iraq will begin development of the railway.

DATA POINT #1- The UAE's non-oil foreign trade reached a record high of AED 1.23 tn in 1H 2023, up 14.4% y-o-y, WAM reports, citing data from the Economy Ministry. The country’s foreign trade has witnessed consistent q-o-q growth since 2020. The UAE’s non-oil exports rose 22% with the top 10 global trading partners in 2023,” Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Mohammed Al Maktoum said.

Non-oil exports contributed 16.6% to the UAE's total foreign trade, hitting AED 205 bn in 1H 2023, up 11.9% y-o-y. The UAE’s re-exports rose 9.9% y-o-y to AED 341 bn during the period, while imports rose to AED 693 bn, up 17.5% y-o-y.

Geographic breakdown: China remained the UAE’s top global trading partner, followed by India, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Bilateral trade with Turkey — with whom the UAE signed a CEPA in March — rose 87.4% y-o-y during the period. Iraq, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, and Russia rounded out the top 10. Non-oil trade with the UAE's top 10 trading partners collectively rose 16.7% y-o-y.

DATA POINT #2- Mwani Qatar witnessed a 19% m-o-m rise in container volumes in August to 249 containers, with a volume of 120k TEUs, according to a statement. Volumes of building materials rose 31% y-o-y, while livestock volumes soared 215% y-o-y and RORO rose 30% y-o-y. The total number of vessels reached 249 and containers handled a total of 120k TEUs.

MARKET WATCH-

Iran's oil production and exports surged in August despite US sanctions, driven by its sales to buyers like China, according to consultants and companies that track tanker shipments, Reuters reports. This increase in exports is attributed to Iran's successful evasion of US sanctions and the US' discretion in implementing them, as the two countries work towards improved relations. Iran's oil production reached 3.15 mn barrels per day (bpd), the highest since 2018, with exports just below 2 mn bpd, consulting firm SVB International estimates.

Background: The US aimed to restrict Iran's oil exports after former President Donald Trump exited a 2015 nuclear accord in 2018 and imposed sanctions to restrict revenues to Iran. Exports have now increased under President Joe Biden's term, with China as a major purchaser.

Fujairah’s fuel oil inventories fell 2% m-o-m in August, according to the latest data from the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) and S&P Global, Hellenic Shipping News reports. Heavy distillate and residual stocks fell 225k bbls to 9.14 mn bbls, while middle distillate stocks dropped by 867k bbls to 2.15 mn bbls. On the other hand, Fujairah’s imports rose significantly, with some 381k b/d of fuel oil imported in August, up from 293k b/d in July. Fuel oil exports from the port also increased by 85k b/d to 486k barrels per day, mainly heading to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.

NON-LOGISTICS REGIONAL HEADLINES-

  • EGYPT: Egypt’s net foreign liabilities narrowed by USD 800 mn in July, driven by a slight easing in FX liquidity in the banking sector, according to central bank figures out last week.
  • UAE: The UAE increased prices of petrol and diesel as of the beginning of the month by between 9.5-15.3%. (Statement)
  • Saudi Arabia: Saudi Aramco is considering selling shares worth USD 50 bn in a secondary listing on the Saudi stock exchange, in what would be the largest offering in the history of capital markets. (Wall Street Journal )

CHECK OUT OUR AGENDA-

The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

This is our first two-day event,which should give us plenty of time to dive into the nitty gritty of this industry we love. Our panels will see CEOs, bankers, investors and founders gather to discuss the future and trends shaping banking, finance, fintech and NBFS.

Our full agenda will be out at month’s end. Among the topics we’ll be discussing:

  • Looking into the crystal ball: Top industry CEOs will join us on stage to answer tough questions on where we are as an industry, the forces that will shape all of our businesses going forward, and their views on dealflow in the year ahead.
  • Surviving nuclear winter: We discuss how private equity and venture capital players are tackling challenges including fundraising and deployment in an environment in which it’s awfully difficult to price your local asset in USD terms.
  • The robots are coming: We explore what the coming AI and big data means for the industry in our part of the world and what can bankers, NBFI, and fintech players do to capitalize on them.
  • What do you do when nobody wants to be a banker — and when those who are already (investment or commercial) bankers are either (a) dreaming of doing their own startup or (b) moving to Dubai (or, increasingly, Riyadh)? We go deep into the weeds with industry leaders on how they’re building talent for tomorrow.
  • NBFIs are a bubble. Prove me wrong: We chart the explosive rise of NBFIs and ask whether the industry is ready for a wave of consolidation. We’ll dive into whether consumer finance is starting to mature as a segment — and ask which sector is next.
  • What does 2024 hold in store for fintech: We dive deep into which categories are getting traction, which segments will account for the lion’s share of future growth, what business they would start today if they could, and what we can expect of the sector in the year ahead.
  • What’s a bank, anyway? Wherein we talk challenger and neobanks with the players looking to shake up the brick-and-mortar industry.

** NEW: MORE NETWORKING TIME- Our agenda includes expanded networking time, including an expanded coffee break and a post-event networking room for you to interact with your peers and speak one-on-one with the team at Enterprise.

STAY TUNED for more detail about our exciting agenda in the weeks to come.

TAP OR CLICK HERE if you want to express interest in attending. We’ll be sending out the first batch of invitations soon.

Do you want to become a commercial partner? Ping a note to Moustafa Taalab, our head of commercial.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference kicks off today and continues until Wednesday 6 September at the Ritz Carlton in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The conference will bring together some 2k participants and 50 speakers to dive into topics of innovation and digitization, capacity building, new technologies, and sustainability in the maritime industry.

T he Logistics and Transport Management conference starts today and continues until Friday, 8 September in Dubai, UAE. The event, hosted by EuroMaTech, will teach attendees how to utilize modern purchasing management techniques, enhance their negotiation skills, manage inventories more efficiently, and improve control over warehouse and transportation operations.

Th e Leaders in Logistics KSA Summit is taking place tomorrow at the Crowne Plaza Al Waha in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The summit will cover the kingdom’s national transport and logistics strategy, technology, sustainability, and building a global trade network. The summit will take a deep dive into market trends and challenges as well as Saudi Arabia’s initiatives for developing the logistics sector and diversifying its economy. The summit will also look at how the logistics and supply chain industry can achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 through the Saudi Green Initiative.

The Sustainable Transportation and Legacy for Generations Conference and Exhibition, which is organized by Qatar’s Transport Ministry and sponsored by Qatar Airways Group, Mwani Qatar, and QNB, will take place on 17-18 September at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, Gulf Times reports. The event will cover transportation sector trends, strategies for eco-friendly transit systems, and Qatar's role in global aviation. The conference will include six panel discussions featuring over 20 speakers from various transportation entities.

Check out our full calendar at the bottom of this email for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events and news triggers.

Tags: