As a world’s maritime cluster, Dubai Maritime City’s success has once again made the headlines at this year’s Seatrade Maritime Middle East 2018.
Dubai Maritime City (DMC) has no doubt been strongly active in the region and UAE, and much has been said about this leading maritime destination attracting the mostly renowned investors and companies.
This year’s Seatrade Maritime Middle East Exhibition was even stronger for DMC, with a prestigious pavilion including DMC’s partners Drydocks World, Mak Middle East, a Caterpillar company, Reintjes Middle East, and Al Suhail, the authorized distributor of Weichai Chinese products.
Determined investors seeking a sustainable growth environment benefitted from DMC’s 3 days display at the event, with the city’s modern and ambitious initiatives at their hand.
Positioning Dubai as one of the most competitive maritime hubs in the world, DMC’s role in strengthening UAE’s competitiveness was clearly presented at Seatrade, where world maritime leaders and experts gathered and confirmed UAE’s maritime sector’s super ability to attract regional and international investors. With a maritime sector valued at 200 billion dirhams, which is 5 percent of the local economy, investors are increasingly stimulated to trust this sector and embrace more projects.

International Leadership
Sultan Bin Sulayem, DP World Chairman and CEO said that Dubai Maritime City demonstrates, through its frequent success, the ability of UAE’s maritime sector to develop, increase its competitiveness and integration, with a leading management, especially after Dubai was ranked world's fifth most competitive and attractive maritime center. He added: “The efforts that enhance progress have contributed to achieving the principles and objectives of UAE’s vision, embracing knowledge and innovation in its maritime sector.”
Speaking of the growth and development of the marine sector in Dubai, Bin Sulayem also highlighted the importance of merging the public and private sectors, with means to enhance Dubai’s global competitiveness. He also encouraged expanding joint investments, fruitful partnerships and innovative projects.

Best Maritime Destination
With DMC’s foremost success at this year’s Seatrade, Capt. Rado Antolovic, PhD, CEO and Managing Director, DP World Maritime Services Division, highlighted the exhibition’s importance as a unique platform for industry experts to present their views and expertise regarding the current situation and prospects of the maritime sector, since it connects all the key stakeholders and unites efforts for the industry’s constant development. Antolovic considered that the target is to continuously improve the shipping sector’s efficiency: “Seatrade Middle East is a great opportunity for industry experts to exchange insights and expertise in the maritime sector, which improves the competitiveness of our maritime community, and enhances our efforts to make UAE and Dubai the best leading maritime destinations.”Antolovic also talked of the importance of focusing on innovation and technology to adapt to changing market dynamics: “We believe that utilization of new technologies, which play a focal role in our vision and initiatives alongside innovation, will act as a catalyst for growth; providing Dubai with an immense competitive advantage and positioning it as a world-class maritime center.”

Grand Success
With the aim to present the finest innovative solutions and strengthen its exposure in the region, Al Suhail Ship Management Services, one of DMC’s partners, joined the crowd under DMC’s pavilion to promote its wide range of engineering services specialized in marine, fabrication, construction and oil & gas sectors.
Robban Assafina met Mr. Panicker, Managing Director of Al Suhail Ship Management Services LLC, and was quoted saying: “Seatrade allows us to meet industry leaders and explore trends and insights in all sectors of the maritime world. Our participation was in line with the plan to showcase our products and services. With DMC’s invitation, we truly welcomed the idea of participating under their pavilion, and it was a grand success for us and the other participants as well. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Seatrade as we promote and develop our maritime cluster around the newly expanded Panama Canal.”
Al Suhail Ship Maintenance Services LLC is the sole distributor of WEICHAI marine engines. It has a well-equipped service center, certified welders and comprehensive machine-shop services, with a great designing and building marine experience.

Innovation
Commenting on the Dubai Maritime City’s participation, Ahmed AlHammadi, COO of Dubai Maritime City, stated that DMC’s successful participation in this event strengthens and develops all aspects of the maritime industry in the region while upholding the values of quality and excellence: "It’s an honor to participate in Seatrade, and we present our continuous support to all its programs working to promote a culture of innovation and development in the region’s maritime community. This maritime event comes in line with major advancements taking place in the maritime sector.”
AlHammadi also stressed the city’s commitment to present the latest maritime innovations and maritime initiatives, to build valuable connections and investments that act as key elements in building a safe, integrated and sustainable maritime environment, and serve the national economy’s growth in return.
Marking this big success for DMC, Robban Assafina magazine had met some of DMC’s partners at the event who talked about the importance of their participation under DMC’s pavilion, and acclaimed this partnership and its benefits on their business.
In its first participation at the event, MAK Middle East, a Caterpillar company, and DMC’s local partner, was successfully able to attract investors and look for new prospects. Speaking to Robban Assafina magazine at the event, Alan Naisby, Managing Director at MaK Asia & Middle East, explained the importance of Seatrade and how it opened up for new projects through the company’s display of the MAK and EMD engines: “Being in the Middle East, our goal now is to visit all the clients in the area that own MAK engines. We have been doing this for the last 6-12 months and we now have around 50 clients. This show has helped us to move the needle on that.”
Naisby also talked about the successful partnership with DMC and MAK’s start off in the region: “DMC Cluster was the right choice for our business model which enabled our proximity to our clients in an integrated marine environment. We are really happy with this cooperation because DMC is the principle of a successful maritime cluster. We are also proud to present our products through DMC, being present at the most important international events, and I think that DMC is happy to have Caterpillar as part of the Cluster too. Being under the DMC’s Pavilion at Seatrade was a natural choice, so we are grateful with what they have enabled us to achieve so far.”

Extensive Choices
Robban Assafina also met Mario Bogdanski-Joesten, General Manager Business Development Emerging Markets / Head of Sales Office Center at VULKAN Kupplungs, Reintjes Middle East’s partner, who spoke of DMC’s importance in the region since it provides all services at one place: “DMC’s role is extremely important, bringing together all the global players at this maritime cluster. At DMC, a client has a wide range of potential suppliers that provide all the needed services.”
Through his interview with Robban Assafina magazine, Joesten also talked about VULKAN Kupplungs success throughout its 130 years in the market, highlighting the fruitful partnership with Reintjes: “We are working together with Reintjes in the Middle East and it has been a very successful partnership for the last 20 years. They are representing and assisting us in sales and services, which is very important in this area.”
Speaking of the importance of the Middle East’s market for the company, Joesten said: “The Middle East is considered a good hub for service and repair jobs. So we are ready to help our customers through our local representatives in the region.”

Common Benefits
Arun Kumar Seshagiri, Managing Director at Reintjes Middle East, shed the light on the company’s vigorous participation at the event under DMC’s pavilion: “We have been with DMC for 4 years, and we hope to present ourselves as part of DMC for years to come. Being their partner offers the great benefits of getting new clients and providing them with the right solutions. I think this is profitable for both DMC and Reintjes.”