PHOTO
In its Review of Maritime Transport issued in November last year, UNCTAD had noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had sent shockwaves through supply chains, shipping networks, and ports, leading to plummeting cargo volumes and foiling growth prospects.
The short-term outlook for maritime trade, the report said, is grim. But Gerard van den Heuvel, DP World Egypt Country Manager and CEO for DP World Sokhna, told Zawya that the operator's growth strategy for 2021 remains unchanged.
"Our growth strategy has not changed; it just has been adjusted for COVID-19 related adjustments we had to make in 2020," he said in an interview.
In its 2020 Annual Report, DP World Sokhna's parent, the Dubai-headquartered DP World, had noted that dire prediction of a double-digit drop, made at the beginning of the year by industry analysts, did not materialise, and global port throughput only declined by 2.1 percent in 2020.
Van den Heuvel said infrastructure developments at Sokhna have remained on track and as planned despite the many restrictions and concerns imposed by the pandemic.
Gerard van den Heuvel, DP World Egypt Country Manager and CEO for DP World Sokhna
"We are ensuring that the market and the economic growth expectations will have more than enough port and logistics capacity available to allow for rapid growth, which will further support the growth of the Egyptian economy," he said.
DP World's 2020 Annual Report lists Sokhna among the nine ports and terminals benefitting from the up to $1.2 billion capital expenditure planned for 2021.
Infrastructure and technology
In July 2020, Zawya had reported that DP World Sokhna is nearing the completion of its Basin 2 expansion, which would nearly double the port's container handling capacity to 1.75 million TEUs [twenty-foot equivalent units] per year.
Meanwhile, new technologies aimed at ensuring resilient operations during the pandemic and beyond have been implemented at the port level. These include state-of-the-art Terminal Operating System, gate systems, reefer stack technology.
Van den Heuvel said the operator would soon complete the implementation of the appointment system and the full integration with Egyptian Customs Authorities' Nafeza system for foreign trade facilitation.
"It will not stop only at the port level, and we plan to integrate our systems within the ports and terminal operation as well as in the logistics area of our DP World Egypt businesses to ensure a seamless data flow between DP World and our stakeholders in all port operations and locations in Egypt and around the world," he said.
The operator is also working on projects to strengthen logistics services for the inland needs of its clients and their vendors.
"At the moment, we are working on creating a state-of-the-art depot for empties for our clients. We are also redesigning some of our layouts to allow for more Bulk Cargo capacity in addition to RoRo cargo. Also, we have allocated space for 4 x 10,000 square metres warehousing inside our Terminal to enable distribution services," the official said.
Van den Heuvel emphasised that Sokhna is ideally positioned as a gateway for the Red Sea region.
"We have several other terminals in this region [Red Sea] that we operate, such as Berbera and Jeddah, and others that we seamlessly connect with and can provide door to door services for, without our clients having to worry of dealing with more than one services provider."
"We have the full support of the Egyptian Government in our expansion efforts in the port as well as in our exploration as a regional hub and our inland logistics growth plans," he concluded.
(Reporting by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Anoop Menon)
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Read our full disclaimer policy here.
© ZAWYA 2021
