Dubai Metro set a new record on May 2, with more than 100,000 passengers travelling in Metro in one day. This figure was revealed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). A total of 100,368 passengers made a journey on the network on May 2, 2010. Some 83,832 passengers used the metro the on May 1.This is the most number of figures in a single day to date.
This trend reflects the huge public uptake of the Dubai Metro. Ramadan Abdullah, director of the RTA’s Rail Operation Department, said metro passengers were taking safety instructions seriously. “These include complying with the safety guidelines made to streamline the using of the service and stations, attending to the directions given by the station employees during the peak hours to avoid thronging the platforms during the boarding and alighting process or when the service hours are changed, and ensuring that the balance is topped up when multiple journeys are made,” he said.

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Past four days of heavy rains has claimed the life of fifty people and injuring 385 in Saudi Arabia. Heavy rains and flooding have created havoc in Saudi. Around 250 people were rescued following flash flood in Bisha, Asir, on Saturday. Director of the Traffic General Administration, Major General Sulaiman Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan, have warned motorists to drive carefully after 4,596 traffic accidents were recorded due to the wet weather.
The air wing of the Civil Defense had received 2,100 distress calls from stranded people. Since Wednesday, heavy rains have disrupted normal like in Riyagh, Hail and Najran causing heavy flooding.

Dubai International Airport was the 15th busiest in the world last year for passenger numbers while it ranked fifth for cargo traffic. A total of 40.9m passengers used Dubai's airport in 2009, a growth of 9.2 percent on the previous year. The figures showed that Dubai was one of only four of the world 20 busiest airports to add new growth in 2009, alongside Beijing (ranked third), Bangkok (16th) and San Francisco (20th). Atlanta in the US was the world's busiest airport with almost 88 million passengers, well ahead of London Heathrow (66m) in second place.
For cargo, Dubai also saw growth in 2009 of 5.6 percent, making it one of only three airports to see growth. Memphis and Beijing were the only others, with Memphis topping the world list. Globally, airports saw passenger numbers decline by 2.7 percent last year while cargo volumes retracted by 8.2 percent.

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Dubai World will present a proposal which will consider the long-term interests of banks, contractors and Dubai. The "fair" plan will restructure about $26 billion (Dh95.4bn) of debt as it needs creditors and contractors for the long term, chairman of the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee said. The restructuring proposal will be announced "very soon" and will be drawn up considering the long-term interests of the banks, contractors and Dubai.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum added, "At the end of the day, we need everybody, they need us also; we have projects that will be started in the near future for the long term. My focus today is to do what Dubai knows.” The emirate had given too much attention to its real estate market as prices accelerated, becoming too high over the past five years, he said adding real estate prices are now "right" for Dubai and will help attract new residents and businesses to the emirate, Sheikh Ahmed said. A new offshore oil discovery is "a plus" for Dubai, he said.

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Prices in steel in UAE showed a positive trend in cost reaching at AED 2,150 per tone and this overall monthly increase from December 2009 to march this year will supposedly influence the regional market as far as implications on the capacity of mills to operate at full capacity. Furthermore scrap prices will continue to firm up, costs of raw materials steadily increased, and billet availability is constrained. In the coming months, more hikes in price are predicted prompting local steel suppliers to strongly reinforce their presence in the regional market. However the rise in price is not in with the steep levels by which global steel prices are rising, which is a reflection that the steel market in the region is becoming indifferent to global market forces and thus continues to have a significant lag behind price surges in other parts of the world.
The price of steel in the UAE started its recent climb from a rate of AED 1,780 per tonne in November-December 2009, to AED 1,850 in January 2010, to AED 1,950 in February, and to its present rate of AED 2,150 per tonne. Comparatively, global steel (mill) prices have gone from USD 490 (December 2009) to USD 520 (January 2010) to USD 535 (February 2010) to USD 570 (March 2010), and latest estimates reveal that a price of USD 600 is imminent. The region’s indifference to the rate of increase seen in global prices is partly due to weak demand, as a result of some major projects in the Middle East being delayed or put on hold. Furthermore, liquidity in payment remains tough, with most contractors and developers unable to commit to immediate payments for suppliers in the region.

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MANAMA: The investment banking subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Al-Rajhi Bank, Al-Rajhi Capital, and Bahrain-based global investment bank, Arcapita BankArcapita Bank, have announced the launch of a $500 million fund aimed at the regional real estate sector, the ARC Real Estate Income Fund.

The entities will seed the fund with a joint investment of $50 million and acquire investments for the fund in high-quality, income-generating real estate assets in Saudi Arabia and other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nations. The focus will be on logistics warehouses, as well as healthcare and education-related assets.

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