ARIA Commodities, the industry-leading in the field of Asphalt and Distillates and Storage Infrastructure Development, has announced it would invest a total of AED 154 million ($42 million) in the construction of four plants in the Hamriyah Free Zone, comprising a Bitumen Plant, a Refinery, a Tire Cycling Plant, and a Storage Terminal.
ARIA has also stated that it will lease three additional plots of land in the free zone, taking the total number of areas secured to five, with a joint space of 540,000 sq. ft.
ARIA’s novel expansion plan was open during a ceremony held recently to sign a lease agreement with the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) by HE Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, HFZA Director, and Mirat Bhadlawala, Chief Executive Officer for the Energy Business and Chief Optimization Officer at ARIA Commodities DMCC. The ceremony was joined by a number of senior delegates.
The new development is anticipated to extend HFZA’s prominent status as a leading destination for businesses looking forward to establishing their operation within a competitive environment that extends effortless business set-up processes.
ARIA Group’s industrial center, which is positioned in HFZA was founded in February 2021. The four new facilities are designed in a way that considers adhering to sustainability requirements as well as the optimal use of natural resources, which strengthens the company’s commitment towards renewable energy and which support in the direction of the UAE’s goal of Net Zero 2050.
Aria’s National industrial approach
It is expected that ARIA’s expansion goals would support the national industrial strategy. Besides enhancing the value of products made in the UAE, they will help meet the growing demands of key sectors on which the national economy of the country is based, such as construction, chemical industries, roads, maritime transport, petroleum products, and logistics services for the aviation sector. We will make every effort to satisfy such demands, diversify, and improve UAE exports to several nations in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa, he added.
Sustainability guidelines
Applauding ARIA’s expansion strategies, Al Mazrouei emphasized that the latest investments will not only enhance the sustainability guidelines in Sharjah but will also strengthen the UAE’s efforts being made to improve its international reputation and adopt circular economy concepts. Furthermore, its investments will strengthen Sharjah’s strategy, which seeks to develop products, services, and solutions, and that reinforce sustainable development and expand the local economy towards better prosperity.
ARIA’s new plants will be environmentally safe. The four plants would enhance the optimum use of natural resources; however, they will also support lower industrial waste and extend the life cycle of materials and products by adopting environmentally friendly measures, Al Mazrouei stated.
Expanding worldwide
Mirat Bhadlawala emphasised that ARIA aims to be a one-stop-shop in road and manufacturing, civil construction, and trading of distillates, not only within Hamriyah but expanding their extent worldwide to cater to the gas oil and bunkering markets too. ARIA’s decision to base their operations in HFZA was a step in the right course of action. The free zone is strategically positioned as an oil zone with multi-dimensional infrastructure catering to the UAE holistically, with the north and south within an equidistant reach and the port infrastructure helping them not just to serve the UAE but also spread their arms to the world.
It has one of the finest infrastructure and support structures for the oil and gas industry, which promotes the investor’s business multiple times and promotes the business worldwide. HFZA’s innovative technological advancements have heightened investors’ trust and promoted an ease of doing business funded by online support platforms uniting and assisting investors with the click of a button.
Safe Environment
Bhadlawala added ARIA aims to build a safer environment worldwide by establishing environmentally friendly, renewable products supporting the circular economy, which will be used in the road paving industry and the refinery will support green fuel for vehicles and bunkers conforming with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020. ARIA’s plants will cater to projects covering from diversified terrain roads to high-intensity surfaces such as airport runways. He stated that the company’s target audience contains road contractors, bunkering industries, chemical and paint industries, industrial fuel, paving industries, cement factories (crushers), and the automobile and transportation sector.
Furthermore, to offering industrial and commercial plots of land, HFZA is the second-largest industrial-free zone in the UAE, provides advanced infrastructure and modern facilities that strengthen external expansion plans for investors, particularly in importing and re-exporting, to the domain’s markets. It also delivers innumerable competitive advantages, remarkably a single-window operation that enhances the effectiveness of performance and eases procedures of doing business, along with multiple tax exemptions, repatriation of capital and profits, full foreign ownership of the business, and fast access to regional and global markets.
