Dubai’s economic development has placed this city of the United Arab Emirates as one of the main commercial hubs in the world, increasing exponentially the ocean freight to Dubai during the last 20 years.
Its current GDP is over 100 billion dollars and, surprisingly, petroleum isn´t anymore the main source of revenue, giving way to thriving real estate, tourism and financial services. Trade carried out in the Free Trade Zones -known as entrepôt- is also important. Because of the foregoing, the ocean freight to Dubai and foreign trade have become crucial.
If you want to book an ocean freight to Dubai with the most advantageous conditions, you must first choose first a Full Container Load (FCL) or a Less than a Container Load (LCL) - Groupage.
Firstly, FCL means that you will have a container just for your cargo. Therefore, your goods will be completely isolated from other products shipped by other traders. Besides, if your cargo volume is 10 or 21 standard American pallets (consider that each standard American pallet measures 39.37 inches wide and 47.24 inches long), you will optimize the shipping costs, as those are the exact capacities of the 20-foot or 40-foot containers, respectively.
However, if you don’t need such volume because your shipment does not even fill half of the container and the risks associated to sharing the space with other shipment are not a main concern, then the “groupage” or LCL will let you save on shipping costs. As you share the container with cargo belonging to other traders, you pay only for the space used by your cargo.
Dubai has two important international seaports: Port Rashid and the Port of Jebel Ali. The Dubai Ports Authority manages both ports.
Port Rashid is located near the most important commercial zone in the city. It manages the foreign trade activity of all the United Arab Emirates, as well as a large volume of passenger traffic. Its advanced technology has turned this infrastructure into the most advanced seaport in the world, and in fact, it has the largest docking capacity for vessels. Its 102 deepwater berths and 10 berths enable loading and unloading large container vessels, general cargo and Ro-Ro.
The Port of Jebel Ali is just 35 kilometers southeast of the city center and is currently the largest port in the Middle East. Like Port Rashid, it handles both passenger traffic and foreign trade operations. Its container yard covers over approximately 250 acres.
The Cargo Village premises let the port connect efficiently with the motorway network and the International Airport. With more than 8 million TEUs handled per year, it is among the 10 most important commercial seaports in the world.
iContainers offers efficient and professional ocean freight services to Dubai from a wide range of ports all over the world. These include ports in:
For more information, consult ship container rates for your ocean freight to Dubai here.