Jafza earmarks AED 8.5 bn for infrastructure revamp: DP World’s Jebel Ali FreeZone (Jafza) is set to invest nearly AED 8.5 bn over the next three years a bid to expand the zone and upgrade its infrastructure, COO Abdullah Al Hashemi told local news outlet Al Khaleej. The projects will be financed through Jafza’s internal resources, in addition to DP World-approved agreements inked with private sector players, Al Hashemi said, without going into further detail.

The breakdown:

  • AED 3.5 will be invested into new logistics equipment and facilities;
  • AED 1 bn will go towards upgrading and expanding infrastructure in the zone;
  • AED 4.1 bn is earmarked for the development of specialized markets – including Bharat Mart for Indian traders and Turk Mart for Turkish traders.

We’ve know that Jafza is in investment mode for a while: The freezone allocated some AED 90 mn into the second phase of its logistics park in March, adding some 360k sq ft of Grade-A facilities to the plot and bringing the total area of the park to 922k sq ft. The second phase of the park will include loading docks, temperature-controlled warehouses, offices, customizable units, and ramped up power capacity to support the surge in sites.

…for good reason: Jafza’s rents increased 28% y-o-y in 2024 on the back of strong demand in Dubai from manufacturing, e-commerce, and third-party logistics players. Jafza’s phase one units were all snapped up before the site was even completed in late 2023. The zone is home to over 10k global firms, and just this year alone saw the likes of German technology company Allied Heat Exchange AG (A-Heat), Indian food giant Haldiram and Local argo-commodity supplier Spring Valley plan to set up shop.

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