DP World honoured by maritime industry
Seatrade recognises industry major with top awards as bin Thaniah remains upbeat on future of ME shipping
Nearly 700 senior executives from maritime companies across the region attended the sixth annual Seatrade Middle East and Indian Subcontinent Awards to recognise and reward excellence throughout the industry.
During his opening speech, guest of Honour Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah, Vice Chairman of DP World, presented an upbeat assessment of future container traffic growth throughout the region, calling upon other ports in the Middle East to upgrade their facilities and levels of service to cope with the extra volume in trade.
One of the top awards of the evening was given to Mohamed Sharaf, CEO of DP World who was named ‘Personality of the Year’. The prestigious award recognised the ongoing and successful expansion of Jebel Ali Port as well as the group’s other interests around the world.
To cap a rewarding evening DP World was further honoured with the ‘Container Terminal Operating Award’ for the UAE region.
“DP World is a global industry player. It is appropriate that they should be honoured by their industry peers at the Seatrade Awards for their vision and commitment to the UAE as well as overseas,” commented Chris Hayman, Chairman, Seatrade.
United Arab Shipping Co (UASC) another key regional player received the accolade for ‘Deal of the Year Award’ for placing the largest containership new-building order, which was valued at US$1.5 billion. UASC also scooped the ‘Ship Owner/Operator Award’ to round-off a successful night.
Hosted by TV personality Tim Sebastian (‘Hard Talk’ & ‘Doha Debates’) other award-winners included George Edward Chapman, who started container operations at Port Rashid back in the 1960s when the terminal was under agency control, who received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.
Dubai-based Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) picked up the prestigious ‘Safety & Quality Award’, one of the four technical awards, the other three being awarded to Emarat Maritime, for Education and Training; Aveva Solutions, for Technical Innovation; and Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) of Mumbai for Environment Protection.
The ‘Energy Oil and Gas Award’ went to Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, while Vela of Saudi Arabia won the fiercely contested ‘Tanker Operator Award’. Similarly, Samsara group from India picked up the much sought after ‘Ship Agent Award’ while Varun Shipping was the winner of the ‘Marine & Offshore Services Award’.
