On February 25th and 26th of 2020, an Adrianople Group Representative was present for Hive Events’ yearly BreakBulk Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The event featured a massive exhibition with over 40 booths, as well as a conference space for high-level talks on the subject of shipping.

Presenters at both the exhibition and conference ranged from consultants to providers of heavy lift services, container manufacturers, shippers, port owners, operators and many others. Adrianople Group’s primary interest was in the various free ports and special economic zones present at the event.

Key representatives of the zone space included those of Oman’s free ports in Salalah, Sohar and Duqm, as well as Saudi and Emirati representatives such as Jebel Ali Free Zone and King Abdullah Port.

A particularly welcome surprise was the presence of Iraqi and Qatari stakeholders who had connections to the respective countries’ free ports.

Industry representatives were well-informed of the status of free ports and their regulations, and understood that intermodal is the next stage for development that the ports industry should focus on in the coming years.

The most exciting presentation at the event’s conference for us was a segment by Richard Thompson, Editorial Director at MEED - he spoke about the trends and notable events to take place in the coming decade, with a large focus on business intelligence and investment attraction policy.

In closing, this was a truly international showing from Africa, all Gulf countries, Western Europe and East Asia - gathered to showcase the latest and greatest in the shipping and ports space, which Adrianople Group is glad to have attended. This space - regionally and sectorally - is one that Adrianople Group will monitor closely in the future. We will likely attend other BreakBulk events in the future.