Cyprus doubles Seatrade Middle East Maritime presence

Cyprus is to be out in force in Dubai later this year at Seatrade Middle East Maritime, the Middle East’s premier conference and exhibition for the maritime sector, with the Mediterranean island already doubling its presence at the show compared to last year.

To date, four key Cypriot organisations have signed up for the event, which will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, in the United Arab Emirates, from December 6-8.

Exhibitors include the marine classifiers the Cyprus Bureau of Shipping (CBS) and marine suppliers M.I.E. Services Middle East (Ltd), which both participated last year, and ship managers, Unicom Management Services and Marichem Marigases Worldwide Services, both taking part for the first time.

“The increased Cypriot presence is a key indicator to the island’s growing ambitions as an offshore international marine supply centre,” said Chris Hayman, Managing Director, Seatrade. “They will be looking to capitalise on the proximity of Cyprus to key markets within the Middle East.”

And the Cypriot lobby says the Middle East is becoming increasingly important to its industry, particularly with reconstruction in Iraq.

“The opening of the Iraq market may increase our tanker trade from the Middle East,” Peter Waller, Business Development Manager, Unicom. “We now want to promote ourselves in the Middle East and are investigating the prospects for opening an office in the region or entering into a joint venture.”

M.I.E. also believes the opening up of Iraq may help boost the regional shipping trade and is now planning to launch a new service agency at Seatrade Middle East Maritime.

“As sales agent for major marine-related manufacturers we will demonstrate a range of equipment at the show,” said Simon Hemper, Managing Director, M.I.E.

“We already have a dedicated office for the Middle East which forms about 10 percent of our group turnover and have long term expansion plans for the region. We do believe that Dubai in particular will become a greater shipping hub over the years to come, the infrastructure is very much in place now.”

Cyprus is among 19 countries from which exhibitors have registered for the Seatrade Middle East Maritime exhibition, which the organisers predict will be triple the size of last year. Iran, Turkey, India and Pakistan will have industry pavilions at the show.

“As of now the event is almost 80% sold out. This overwhelming response shows the increasing importance the maritime industry attaches to Seatrade,” said Hayman.

Seatrade Middle East Maritime will also feature an industry conference with four distinct streams – General Shipping, the first Dubai Commodities Conference (organised in association with the Dubai Metals & Commodities Centre), the fourth Seatrade Middle East Cruise Conference and a one-day conference on the expanding SuperYacht market in the region.