COSCO and Abu Dhabi Ports inaugurate container terminal in Khalifa Port

COSCO Shipping Ports (CSP) and Abu Dhabi Ports have held today the official inauguration ceremony for the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal at the Khalifa Port, informs CSP. The high-level event was attended by officials from China and UAE as well as by senior management of both port operating companies.

CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal is the first international green-field subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Ports. The semi-automated terminal with the draft of 16.5m is able to accommodate mega-vessels with capacity of over 20,000 TEU. CSP Abu Dhabi will begin trial operations in April 2019 with 1.5 mln TEU handling capacity, and will be gradually ramping up the volume until the official operations commence in Q3 2019. The annual design capacity of the terminal is 2.5 mln TEU.

Total capex made by CSP in the terminal was USD 300 mln, which includes the largest Container Freight Station (CFS) in the Middle East covering 275,000 sq.m. This state-of-the-art facility is the first of its kind in the region. The CFS will be servicing full and partial bonded container shipments, as well as offering the full range of container packing services, short-term warehousing for de-consolidated cargo and will provide easy connectivity with container terminals in Khalifa Port.

CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal is part of Abu Dhabi Ports’ five-year growth strategy to increase Khalifa Port, with its two container terminals, to a combined total capacity of 9.1 mln TEU. The addition of CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal has already moved Khalifa Port from #89 in the world largest container port ranking up to within the top 25.

The deep-water Khalifa Port, strategically located halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was officially inaugurated 6 years ago, on 12 December 2012 by President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It is the flagship port of Abu Dhabi Ports and the first semi-automated container facility in the region. Apart from containers, the port handles general, Ro-Ro and break-bulk cargo.

In Q2 2018, Autoterminal Barcelona, owned by the Noatum Maritime Group, and Abu Dhabi Ports, signed a shareholder agreement for the creation of a JV company called Autoterminal Khalifa, to manage the Ro-Ro terminal in Khalifa Port under a 15-year concession.

China is the UAE’s largest non-oil trade partner. In 2017, bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 15% to more than USD 53 bln, representing 14.7% of the UAE’s total foreign trade.

Julia Louppova:
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