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Emirates goes big on a USD 5 bn engineering hub at Dubai South

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

TODAY: Emirates breaks ground on USD 5 bn engineering facility at Dubai South

Good morning, friends. We have a brisk read for you this morning — compact but packed with key moves across planes, ports, and trade corridors. Leading the issue: Emirates broke ground on its USD 5 bn MRO mega-facility in Dubai South. Staying in the UAE, Borouge is weighing an East Coast export hub as Adnoc advances efforts to rewire its West-East logistics network.

And widening the lens to North Africa: Morocco is planning around USD 8 bn in port investments under its Port 2030 strategy to build multiple new gateways for global trade.


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Watch this space

ENERGY — Cyprus wants to route natural gas exports through Egypt by 2028 — piping volumes from the offshore Cronos field to European markets, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said ahead of a cabinet meeting that approved the field’s development and production plan alongside its commercial framework.

BACKGROUND- Last year, the Egyptian Oil Ministry signed three agreements with field partners Eni and TotalEnergies to transport and process Cronos gas through Zohr-linked infrastructure, liquefy it at Damietta, and re-export it to Europe. The 2028 target aligns with statements from both former Cypriot energy minister George Papanastasiou last year and current Minister Michael Damianos in March, who both walked back an earlier 2027 timeline.

The wider picture: North Africa’s race to supply Europe is intensifying, with Algeria, Morocco, and Libya all jostling for a bigger share of the bloc’s energy demand, as we explained in depth last month .


ZONES — Service startups in Egypt are getting a dedicated class of freezones, and all new freezone licenses are subject to a strict 100% export mandate moving forward, Investment Minister Mohamed Farid and Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said during a seminar attended by EnterpriseAM this week.

Why it matters: The move builds on a previous policy which only allowed service startups to operate within existing general freezones. The new amendments will provide the legislative framework for the new service-only freezone category, giving them a dedicated status and access to tax and customs incentives.

DATA POINT- USD 7.4 bn — that’s how much Egypt’s digital exports reached in 2025, up from USD 3.3 bn the year before, driven by outsourcing services revenues increasing to USD 4.8 bn for the year.

The Investment Ministry is also close to launching the country’s first services export council, Farid said. Its initial focus will be on scaling and exporting educational, training, and outsourcing services to capture regional demand and draw a larger pipeline of international students.

Market watch

Oil prices eased this morning after US President Donald Trump said the Iran war would end “very quickly,” though supply disruption fears persisted, Reuters reports. Brent crude futures slipped USD 0.88 to trade at USD 110.40 / bbl by 04.10 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped USD 0.67 to USD 103.48 / bbl.


The Baltic Index extends losses: The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk index — which tracks rates for the capesize, panamax, and supramax vessel segments — fell 1.2% to 3,054 points, driven by general declines across vessel segments. The capesize declined 1.3% to 4,949 points, while the panamax index fell 2.1% to 2,459. The smaller supramax eased 0.1% to 1,568 points.

PSA

CMA CGM resets Med-Far East rates from June: French carrier CMA CGM will introduce new Freight All Kinds (FAK) rates on shipments from Mediterranean main ports to Far East base ports, effective 1 June until further notice. Under the revised pricing, rates are set at USD 145 per container from the West Mediterranean, USD 25 from the Adriatic, USD 400 from the Black Sea, and USD 350 from the East M

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The Big Story Today

Building the backend

Emirates is building a USD 5 bn aviation repair giant at DWC: Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates broke ground on its USD 5.1 bn “ultra-modern” engineering facility at Dubai South, according to a statement. The project — developed by China Railway Construction Company, with Artelia appointed as project consultant — is set to span 1 mn sqm and is expected to be completed by mid-2030.

The scale: The new engineering complex will be nearly twice the size of Emirates’ current facilities and capable of handling 28 wide-body aircraft simultaneously, Emirates CEO Adel Al Redha told Khaleej Times. The site is being designed for everything from heavy maintenance to passenger-to-freighter conversions and repainting operations. “We'll be able to do two or three aircraft painting widebody simultaneously. So it will be the [center] of attraction, the [center] of excellence,” Al Redha said.

What else is in store? The facility will also include a 285-meter clear-span hangar, a dedicated landing gear workshop, 77k sqm of workshop space for repairs and maintenance, and 380k sqm of storage and logistics capacity, the statement adds.

Emirates has been doubling down on engineering facilities: Back in 2023, the firm announced a USD 950 mn engineering facility at Dubai South, which it described as the largest and most advanced of its kind operated by any airline. The original plan included heavy maintenance hangars, engine testing facilities, paint shops, and aircraft conversion capabilities, with a second phase designed to potentially double capacity.

Why it matters: Gulf aviation competition is no longer defined solely by passenger traffic or fleet size — it is increasingly about control of the surrounding infrastructure ecosystem. Maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capacity has become strategically critical as airlines contend with longer aircraft delivery timelines, aging fleets, and rising demand for freighter conversions driven by e-commerce and cargo growth.

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Trade

The UAE’s logistics pivot is moving east

AD Ports doubles down on the East Coast: AD Ports and Borouge signed an agreement to explore building an alternative export hub for petrochemical shipments on the UAE’s East Coast — centered around Fujairah and other eastern port facilities.

The group activated a “firm strategy” to completely reengineer supply chains during the disruptions, shifting cargo flows across alternative corridors by sea, road, rail, and air while activating what it calls the “East Coast Plan” to bypass disrupted maritime chokepoints entirely.

Why this matters: Gulf logistics is treating the disruptions as a structural operating condition rather than a temporary shock. What started as contingency routing is turning into permanent infrastructure. AD Ports is building redundancy across the entire supply chain, spanning ports, trucks, rail, air freight, and storage. This matters because the Gulf’s logistics race is notably shifting from simple port throughput that can maintain a portfolio of corridors under geopolitical stress.

DATA POINT- More than 130k containers and 215k tons of bulk cargo have moved through Fujairah and Khor Fakkan since the beginning of March, AD Ports Chief Sustainability and Risk Management Officer Saif Al Mehairi told CNBC Arabia.

The scale: East Coast container handling rates now exceed 1.8k containers per day, with Fujairah alone seeing vessel calls increase to more than 25 ships a month. The group deployed more than 800 trucks to move cargo inland toward ports like Khalifa, while rail volumes jumped from just four monthly trips to some 120 currently, with the occupancy rate reaching 80%. More than 100 cargo flights were also deployed, while storage capacity was expanded by more than 76k sqm.

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Investment Watch

Morocco is building its next generation of ports

Morocco is aiming for multiple maritime gateways, with plans to invest around USD 8 bn under its 2030 ports strategy to develop new ports, expand existing infrastructure, and build shipyards for construction and repair, Sanaa El Omrani, director of ports and maritime public domain at the Equipment and Water Ministry, told the Arabic press on the sidelines of a conference in Rabat last week. The plan targets a 15% increase in national port capacity to around 450 mn tons by 2030.

Tanger Med anchors the scale of Morocco’s port system: The Tanger Med port handled 11.1 mn TEUs in 2025, up 8.4% y-o-y, after surpassing the 10 mn TEU threshold in 2024, according to a press release (pdf). Total cargo traffic at the port reached 161 mn tons, while TIR truck flows rose 3.6% to 535.2k units, reflecting strong industrial and agri-food export momentum.

Why does this matter? It’s a tested node in global trade flows. Russian metals producer Nornickel has been diverting cargoes around Africa, increasingly routing shipments through Tanger Med before onward delivery to Europe. The Moroccan hub is also positioned to absorb higher vessel traffic as Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM reroute services away from the Suez Canal amid broader Middle East disruptions.

What to expect from the country’s port expansion play: Morocco’s port network is widening beyond its northern hub into a dual-axis system. Dakhla port, due in 2028, will feature a 23-meter depth and support heavy industry, green hydrogen exports, and trade links toward West Africa and the Sahel. On the Mediterranean coast, Nador West Med is set for 2H this year, with up to 5k hectares of industrial space and Morocco’s first LNG floating storage and regasification unit, backed in part by EUR 489.8 mn in African Development Bank funding.

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Moves

Aqaba Container Terminal taps new CEO

New CEO at Aqaba’s container gateway: Aqaba Container Terminal appointed Jose Rueda (LinkedIn) as CEO, effective next month. Rueda — who succeeds Harald Nijihof (LinkedIn) — brings a wealth of experience in shipping, port management, and logistics, having most recently served as managing director of APM Terminals Moin in Costa Rica.

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Also on Our Radar

Sky Ports tapped for dry port development in Egypt

Sky Ports steps up for stalled project

Logistics provider Sky Ports is set to finance, build, and operate a dry port and logistics zone in Alexandria’s New Borg El Arab per an MoU it signed with Egypt’s General Authority for Land and Dry Ports, according to a Transport Ministry statement. The project is expected to handle around 120k containers annually — hauling about 6.7 mn tons of dry goods.

BACKGROUND- This is the latest move in a long string of attempts to get the project off the ground. The government has been courting developers since 2020, with proposals from Korea’s CGN, an Alpha Capital -led consortium, and GCC-based Al Ahmadiah Contracting all previously on the table, alongside a stalled 2023 agreement with Ocean Express Shipping.

Why it matters: The project is central to the government’s goal to roll out 33 dry ports nationwide and ease container bottlenecks at maritime ports.

Saif Zone expands U2 logistics district with 56 new warehouses

Saif Zone adds more warehouse capacity: Sharjah Airport International Freezone (Saif Zone) expanded its U2 logistics district with 56 new warehouses spanning nearly 340k sq ft, increasing its total stock to around 2.5k units, Wam reports. The new warehouses offer units of up to 6.5k sq ft each and feature integrated office space, loading bays, and enhanced power capacity to support industrial, commercial, manufacturing, and logistics tenants.


MAY

19-21 May (Tuesday-Thursday): Ground Handling Conference (IGHC), Cairo, Egypt.

19-21 May (Tuesday-Thursday): Terminal Operations Conference & Exhibition, Hamburg, Germany.

JUNE

2-4 June (Tuesday-Thursday): ProPak Mena, Cairo, Egypt.

4-5 June (Thursday-Friday): Supply Chain and Logistics Summit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

6-8 June (Saturday-Monday): IATA World Air Transport Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

10-11 June (Wednesday-Thursday): Black Sea Ports and Logistics, Istanbul, Turkey.

21-24 June (Sunday-Wednesday): Saudi Smart Logistics, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

22-23 June (Monday-Tuesday): Decarbonizing Shipping Forum, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

AUGUST

30 August-1 September (Sunday-Tuesday): Air Cargo Middle East, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

30 August-1 September (Sunday-Tuesday): Saudi Warehouse and Logistics Expo, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

SEPTEMBER

16-17 September (Wednesday-Thursday): Saudi Maritime & Logistics Congress, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

22-24 September (Tuesday-Thursday): Seamless Middle East, Dubai, UAE.

28-30 September (Monday-Wednesday): Transport Logistics Middle East, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

OCTOBER

12-14 October (Monday-Wednesday): The Airport Show, Dubai, UAE.

21-22 October (Wednesday-Thursday): Global Ports Forum, Singapore.

26-29 (Monday-Thursday): Air Cargo Forum, Miami, US.

27-29 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Routes World, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

NOVEMBER

2-5 November (Monday-Thursday): ADIPEC Maritime and Logistics Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

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