Abu Dhabi Government News

The United Arab Emirates has signed a 3.5 billion dirham ($950 million) contract with Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) to manufacture four new patrol vessels for the Gulf Arab state's navy, ADSB said on Tuesday.The Falaj 3-class Offshore Patrol Vessel contract was ADSB's largest ever order, which Chief Executive David Massey said gave it a sustainable and profitable future for the next five years.ADSB will build all four hulls in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, and is responsible for integrating systems, he said.Massey told Reuters ADSB first entered into talks with the UAE for the vessel contract s

Abu Dhabi Ports has awarded China's Cosco Shipping a 35-year concession to build and operate a new container terminal at Khalifa Port, the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi company told Reuters on Wednesday. The terminal is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2018, Mohamed Juma al-Shamisi said. It will have a capacity of 2.4 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs), with an option to increase that to 3.5 million TEUs, Shamisi added. COSCO is expected to invest as much as $400 million on the project. Abu Dhabi Ports is an Abu Dhabi government-owned company that runs Khalifa Port and the Khalifa Industrial Zone.   Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Maha El Dahan

Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region, H.E. Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Ports, officially inaugurated Al Mirfa Port in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Ports – the master developer, operator and manager of ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone in the Emirate, recently completed redevelopment work at Al Mirfa Port, upgrading its infrastructure and facilities.

A year after the epic collapse of his industrial empire, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's financial and legal troubles appear far from over. Once worth more than $30 billion and listed as the world's eighth-richest man by Forbes Magazine, Batista says his debts now exceed his assets by $1 billion and the value of his remaining stakes in the oil, shipbuilding, mining and transportation companies he founded continues to shrink. Batista also faces criminal and regulatory investigations into suspected insider trading and fraud. On Monday, a judge ordered Batista, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, to testify on Nov. 18, the first step in a legal saga that experts say could drag on for months, if not years.

Trading firm Trafigura and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala said on Thursday their Brazilian port for exporting iron ore will start this year, in response to a steelmaker with a contract to use the port that said the opening could be pushed back to 2015. Porto Sudeste "is on track to start operation in the beginning of the last quarter of 2014," Eugenio Mamede, chief operating officer for the port, said in a written response to Reuters. Trafigura owns a controlling stake in the port with Abu Dhabi government investment fund Mubadala Development Co. The export terminal located in Rio de Janeiro state will be able to handle 50 million tonnes of iron ore per year, and could expand to 100 million tonnes.

Abu Dhabi Government-owned investment group, International Petroleum Investment Company’s (IPIC) Khalifa Abdulla Al Romaithi, Head of Portfolio Management Division, has taken over chairmanship of Gulf Energy Maritime PJSC (GEM),  from Saeed Abdulla Khoory, Chief Executive officer of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC). Al Romaithi assumes GEM's top post in its Board of Directors, which rotates every three years between IPIC and ENOC. Khoory remains a board member of GEM and will at the same time focus on his increasing role at ENOC.

ABS Nautical Systems Expands Presence in Europe and the Middle East. ABS Nautical Systems has signed five new contracts in Europe and the Middle East. These new agreements signify the continued growth experienced in this region and the demand for the organization’s’ fully integrated asset management software, NS5 Enterprise. Piraeus-based companies Aegean Bunkering Services Inc. and Atlantic Bulk Carries Management Ltd., will utilize the NS5 Hull Inspection software through the ABS Newbuild program, which offers free software to ABS-classed vessels built after 1 January 2009.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building has been awarded a contract to build four landing craft for the Bahrain Naval Forces. The multi-million dollar contract was won in the face of competition from international shipyards. This is the second Bahraini order for Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), the only dedicated naval shipbuilding and repair facility in the Arabian Gulf. The new contract, awarded by the Kingdom of Bahrain Defense Force, is for the construction of two 42-metre steel landing craft and two 16-metre landing craft made of composite materials.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company (ADSB) is preparing to start work on building six missile patrol boats ordered by the United Arab Emirates navy. William Saltzer, marketing and contracts manager at ADSB, said the firm expects to start work on the first vessel as soon as the contract was signed, which he said was expected before the end of the year. "We'll start as soon as the contract is signed. The intention is to sign before the end of this year," Saltzer said. "We are working together with the UAE navy to finalize the contract details and conducting planning activities," he added. A UAE military spokesman on Thursday announced that the UAE has awarded ADSB a contract to build six missile patrol boats for its navy.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company hopes to start negotiations with the UAE navy on the sale of up to 12 missile patrol boats worth more than $500 million. William Saltzer, manager of marketing and contracts at the company, known as ADSB, said a concept design of the 58 m vessel has already been prepared together with France's Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN) and the UAE navy. But he said the equipment has yet to be finalized. "Negotiations could start as soon as the government is ready," Saltzer said. "We will only have to finalize the selection of equipment," he added. Saltzer was speaking at the fifth International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, where some 850 international firms from 42 countries are displaying products.