Hamburg

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is the heart of the German maritime industry. The Northern German city is home of many maritime institutions including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea of the United Nations, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, the German Ship-owners’ Association and the Hamburg Ship Model Basin. Besides the worlds most famous classification societies such as Germanischer Lloyd oder Bureau Veritas, several internationally renowned shipping companies like Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Sued,  NSB and Rickmers Reederei are based in Hamburg.

Without doubt, the port is the driving force behind the success of the Metropolitan Region. The Port of Hamburg, today ranks as Germany’s biggest port and Europe’s second-biggest container port. In the current ranking of the world's container ports Hamburg is in ninth place, Dubai is ranked 8th. While in 1990 the port’s trade volume was 61 million tones, by 2008, its trade volume had more than doubled, to 140.4 million tones. Hamburg is also the port of registry of half the German fleet, and already home to many German shipping companies. Currently, Hamburg-based shipping companies are in charge of handling approx. 25 % of the world’s container transport capacities. 170,000 jobs in Hamburg/ Northern Germany are directly or indirectly associated with the port.

Hamburg is also a centre for the shipping finance industry. Six of the ten greatest financial service providers for the shipping industry are based in Hamburg. Besides traditional ship financing, ship investment funds have also taken on greater significance.

Middle East

The Middle East, especially the UAE is an emerging leader in maritime affairs. The rapid growth of the maritime industry has established the Middle East as a central maritime hub for the whole region.

The UAE has become a complex global shipping industry, with half of the world's internationally trading fleet of tankers passing UAE shores twice a year. The region is well positioned to recover quickly from the global economic slowdown. Moreover, the financial crisis is used by many maritime industry leaders to focus more on core values like sustainability.

The UAE in particular provides wide maritime investment and development opportunities for ship owners, maritime financiers, insurers, lawyers, banks and investors. A recent study by DNV Maritime Solutions revealed that Dubai is set to emerge as one of the word’s most competitive maritime clusters. Especially Dubai’s strategic location ensures it’s role as an international maritime hub.

The creation of the ambitious Dubai Maritime City (DMC) is one of the biggest maritime projects in the Middle East and shows Dubai’s continuously progress in maritime industry. DMC is a state-of- the-art infrastructure which offers services needed by the global maritime industry. DMC was constructed in 2003 and partially opened in 2006.The iconic DMC signals the rapid marina developments in Dubai. It aims to bridge overseas and regional maritime companies and bring their partners closer to customers. It will have a strong impact on the regions maritime industry.

Another maritime project is Hamriyah Maritime City. It has been conceptualized as an integrated maritime industrial city with comprehensive facilities for shipyard operators and maritime related industry with the idea to provide one stop shop engineering solution to the shipping industry.