New services for the busy port of Fujairah

UAE

Mohamed Farook Alikkal, operations manager at Al Folk Marine Services, talks to The Energy Year about the Port of Fujairah’s growing importance within regional and global trade flows and the company’s planned deployment of new services for vessels calling at the port. Al Folk Marine Services is a ship chandler and shipping agency that provides a range of port and supply services to the marine transport sector.

What role do local agents play in the Port of Fujairah’s ecosystem?
Shipping lines and vessel owners come to the Port of Fujairah for bunkers, as the port offers direct access to the busiest refuelling and logistics hubs in the region. Local agents are fundamental for connecting global companies with local service providers like ourselves. Local agents record how many vessels a provider has serviced in a month or a year, and they record said providers on the port list.
At present, we are not dealing with agency vessels, but we are actively looking to do so. Once we add new services to our portfolio and start working with an agency, we will have the capabilities, the vessels and the staff to become a top-three maritime services provider in Fujairah, and even become top 10 in the UAE.

Can you provide an overview of the maritime solutions you hope to add to your portfolio in 2025?
Al Folk Marine Services has grown significantly since its inception in 2015. We started with one ship, and now have six. Four are currently operational, and all of them will be so by the start of 2025. We offer a wide range of 24/7 marine services and have secured a one-year extendable contract with NMDC, as well as a seven-year ongoing charter with DNV.
We are looking to innovate by developing a new model of duty-free ships –an entirely new concept in the UAE and GCC – which will diversify our service offerings. Vessel charterers and owners can pay up to USD 1,500 for crews to go onshore while their vessels are bunkering, for example, which takes around eight to nine hours.
We are expecting to invest around USD 2.5 million in the construction of a duty-free ship that can deliver all the general onshore services to ship crews while they remain on board. This will allow crew members to purchase goods and services with minor downtime for crew managers. We will even develop an application for them to plan their purchases in advance. We plan to launch this project in Fujairah by September 2025. If successful, we will expand it to Dubai, Sharjah and other parts of the UAE.
Another project we plan to launch is a multi-purpose barge to offer fresh water supply, anchor retrieving and delivery of large cargo. Anchor retrieval is an important service because when vessels lose their anchor or anchor chain, they are forbidden to proceed to the next port without retrieving it or filing a detailed report. Hiring a company from Dubai or Sharjah to retrieve it is three times as expensive as the service we can provide.
We expect to invest around USD 3.2 million. A plant on the barge will process salt water into fresh water and supply it to ships, allowing incoming vessels to save fuel, time and onshore refilling costs. We will offer these services to the Fujairah maritime sector to minimise their operational downtime, which can become costly when you include bunkering and other services that are calculated on a per-hour basis.

Has the evolution of the Port of Fujairah brought benefits for Al Folk and the broader maritime sector?
Fujairah’s maritime and trade sectors have evolved significantly and become a central point for global marine trade and bunkering activities. This growth underlines the port’s increasing importance in the global economy. The port’s focus on sustainability, digitalisation and efficiency has been driving the changes.
Thanks to Fujairah’s growth trend, we can plan long-term investments to enhance our fleet and develop specialised vessels to provide flexible and multi-functional services. Our investments will ensure that we remain a fundamental service provider to the offshore oil and gas sector.

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