How to become a ship chandler or marine supplier in the UAE

Every UAE trade licence lists the activities the company may carry on, and the activity decides what you can legally sell. Dubai’s business activity search has an activity called simply “Ship Chandlers”, code 5629004, described as supplying ships and other sea transport units with foodstuffs, fresh water, spare parts, medicines and similar goods. It is a commercial activity issued on a business licence, and the search names the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation as its regulating entity.^[1]

A chandler that also sells technical stores usually needs more than one line. The same search lists separate activities such as Ship & Boats Spare Parts & Components Trading (4763007), Ports & Marine Guide Equipment Trading (4773707) and Marine Equipment Repairing & Maintenance (3319903). Match the licence to what you will actually invoice: provisions and stores under “Ship Chandlers”, spares and equipment under the trading activities, on-board repair work under a service activity.^[1]

The UAE government portal lists six licence types under the Ministry of Economy and Tourism — industrial, commercial, professional, tourism, agricultural and crafts — and eight on the Invest in Dubai side. The mainland steps it sets out are: choose the activity and legal form, register the trade name, get initial approval, draft the memorandum of association and any local service agent agreement, secure premises, obtain any extra government approvals, then submit documents and pay fees.^[2]

Who issues a mainland licence depends on the emirate. The National Economic Register names Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, Sharjah’s Economic Development Department and, for Fujairah, Fujairah Municipality. The Fujairah government adds that a business first obtains initial approval of its name and activity from the municipality, plus special approvals where the activity calls for them.^[3,5]

Free zones are the other route. Jebel Ali Free Zone’s activity list includes “Ship Chandlers” (521911) under transport, shipping and storage services, and ship and boat spare-parts trading under trading. Hamriyah Free Zone in Sharjah says it offers licence options including ship chandlery and trading of marine equipment, with waterfront plots. We found no ship-chandling activity named on the DMCC or IFZA pages we could open — ask them directly before choosing.^[6,8]

The free-zone trade-off is the mainland. The UAE portal says a free zone company may not generally sell directly into the mainland without the required licences; it works through a licensed mainland distributor or opens a mainland branch, and goods become subject to UAE customs duty only when they move into the mainland market. Supplying a foreign-going ship is a different flow: the GCC Common Customs Law lets national and foreign vessels obtain all necessary marine equipment from free zones.^[4,14]

Fujairah publishes the most. The Port of Fujairah’s guide to starting a business lists two forms — a Fujairah Municipality application and a Port License application. Its Notice to Mariners 148 sets the rules for the utility boats that carry stores to the anchorage: the operating company must hold a valid Fujairah Municipality trading licence with its base in Fujairah, the boat must be owned or chartered by a licensed company and hold a navigation licence from the UAE maritime administration, and skippers must check that everyone aboard has offshore passes from the port immigration section.^[9,10]

Most chandlers do not run their own boats; they deliver to the service harbour and an agent’s boat takes the goods out. The full chain is in our anchorage delivery guide, and the port pages for Fujairah, Jebel Ali and Khor Fakkan list who controls each anchorage.

For Jebel Ali and the other DP World sites, port registration and gate passes run through the Dubai Trade portal, which blocked every attempt we made to read it; for Sharjah’s ports the authority’s site did the same. We do not quote their requirements — ask the port operator, or your port agent, what a supplier’s vehicle and driver need to reach the quay.

Goods cannot move through customs without a registered importer or exporter. Dubai Customs registers a business from a copy of its trade licence and the authorised person’s passport and Emirates ID, and issues a unique “Business code” whose validity follows the licence. Its customer guide says the business type declared at registration must match the activities on the licence — another reason to get the activity right first.^[11,12]

Dubai Customs runs declaration routes to ship stores: its 2025 service guide names transit declarations to ship stores, free-zone export (transit out) declarations to ship stores and customs-warehouse export declarations to ship stores. The GCC Common Customs Law also requires the master to declare a manifest of the ship’s supplies on arrival, and allows goods to be withdrawn from the wharf to ships under conditions the customs director sets. Which route fits depends on where your stock sits — duty-paid, in a free zone or in a bonded warehouse; see bonded stores in the UAE.^[13,14]

UAE VAT law zero-rates international transport and, under the executive regulation, goods supplied for use, consumption or sale on a ship in connection with that transport. Goods supplied for operating, repairing or maintaining a qualifying commercial ship are zero-rated too where they are fitted to it or used up in the process — but that article expressly excludes fuel and other oil or gas products. The regulation’s zero rate for ships covers vessels for commercial transport of passengers and goods, not those built for recreation or sport.^[15,16]

Zero-rating is conditional, and the evidence is the supplier’s to keep: the signed delivery note, the vessel’s details and the voyage it is on. Take advice on your own invoices from a UAE tax agent; the articles are only the starting point.

• Licence with every activity you will invoice — chandlery, spares trading, services — in the emirate of the port you serve.
• Customs business code, and a decision on where stock sits: duty-paid, free zone or bonded.
• Port-side arrangements: quay access for your trucks, an agent or boat operator for anchorage work, offshore passes where the port requires them.
• A price list built on IMPA codes, so buyers can compare your quote line by line.

Then you need ships. Register as a supplier on GeoMarineHub: verification checks your trade licence, the signatory’s ID and proof of address, you activate the ports you serve and the categories you cover, and requisitions from vessels calling there come to you to bid sealed, per unit. It is free to start with one port — see how it works for suppliers.