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DP World to build Dh1.1b Djibouti container facility

Djibouti: DP World will build a new container terminal in Doraleh in Djibouti at a cost of Dh1.1 billion ($300 million).

Work will start on the container port, located 11 kilometres from the present one, in June, DP World officials told Gulf News.

With a capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) annually, the terminal will be DP World's second major investment in Djibouti, which sits at the mouth of the Red Sea.

The Dubai port operator has invested $35 million in a 1.5-kilometre jetty at Doraleh Oil Terminal that was inaugurated in February.

"The new container terminal will become operational in the second half of 2008. It will have a capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs but there is enough land available for expansion," said David Hawker, general manager of the Port of Djibouti.

Djibouti hopes the new terminal will make it a transshipment hub for countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

"We are now talking with three shipping lines to come to Djibouti," he said.

The terminal will have eight Super Post-Panamax gantry cranes and will be able to handle giant container ships. It will have a quay length of 900 metres that can be extended to 1,200 metres.

DP World manages the Port of Djibouti, which is landlocked Ethiopia's main channel for trade. Ethiopian cargo accounts for about 80 per cent of the volume handled by the port. "We handle all of Ethiopia's sea cargo," said Abu Bakr Omar Hadi, the port's commercial director.

After the new terminal opens, the Djibouti port will convert two container berths and three oil berths into general cargo facilities, he said.

DP World is also involved in expanding facilities at Djibouti International Airport, which it manages, to increase sea-air cargo volumes.

A new free zone is also being developed around the container terminal, besides the ongoing expansion of the oil terminal.

The $150-million Horizon Djibouti Terminals Limited is built for storage and handling of petroleum products, chemicals, vegetable oils and liquefied petroleum gas. The first phase comprises 23 tanks with a total capacity of 240,000 cubic metres. Some of the storage facilities are exclusively used by tghe US and French navies.

Phase two is under way and the facility's capacity will reach 340,000 cubic metres by July. The third phase will see more capacity addition by the end of this year, Horizon general manager Alain Siozac said.

By Shakir Husain

© Gulf News 2006