Shipping Notes for the UAE

The UAE came into existence in 1971 and at the time its main export was oil. It is this commodity which drove the development of the Emirates and led to the massive development projects of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. During this period the Emirates also started to develop free zones to attempt to diversify the economy away from oil. Large investments were put into various logistics areas including the Jebel Ali Free Zone. This has now become the largest free zone in the world and has become used as a transshipment point for supply chain logistics around the world.

Map of Jebal Ali

Jebal Ali Free Zone [Google Maps]

The combination of both good air and sea transport links, combined with purpose built free zones have made it a very popular and cost effective location. If you are looking to distribute into Africa, Europe and the Middle East then Dubai in the UAE with its free zone has several advantages.

  • It is a dedicated sector constructed to cater to the huge requirement of logistics
  • This free zone offers 100% foreign ownership, free transfer of capital, and exemption from income tax
  • For companies looking to establish here it has visa regulations that are liberal and a workforce is easily available

AJF uses Jebel Ali as it main hub for delivering its logistics services into the Middle East and Europe via our agents here. Operating within the Jebel Ali Free Zone we are able to undertake the following.


  • Transshipment of full containers into other Middle East Countries
  • Full 20ft and 40ft container devaning
  • Palletising and re-exporting of goods into Middle East Countries and Europe
  • Label removing, document change to prevent receivers seeing the original supply
  • Goods consolidation from around the Middle East into one container for re-export
  • Third Party Fulfilment Services including pick n pack
  • Trading Company able to issue invoices and collect payments on behalf of a client
  • Storage of components for the Oil and Gas sector with urgent 24hr handling facilities

Trans-shipment Case Study

A company imported regularly into the UK full 40ft Containers from a manufacturer in China and wanted to expand to several other new clients in Europe. The new clients only required a few full pallets every few weeks. Originally they wanted to fulfil from the UK however the costs of re-working the goods and sending them out from the UK was high even though the UK was in the EU. The alternative was bringing the goods into a warehouse into the Jebal Ali area. Here the container’s were unloaded, the pallets were checked and certain labelling was replaced. The pallets were then exported direct to the supplier using a Dubai trading company, preventing both the receiver and the Chinese manufacturer knowing  each other.

We can manage as in-house logistics contracts for companies which want to out-source all of their supply chain requirements. This includes locating the facilities and set up the procedures to handle the import and redistribution of the goods.

If you have questions about our services or want quotes for shipping or our supply chain logistics then please contact by phone or use our contact form