KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait and Gulf Link Ports International has signed a $1 billion, 40-year concession agreement to build a major container terminal in Egypt, the KGL PI chairman said Tuesday. Under terms of the agreement, the company will build, finance and operate the terminal in the Egyptian city of Damietta, Mohammed Al-Mazeedi told a press conference. The terminal is slated to have a handling capacity of four million standard Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units a year when completed. The first phase of the terminal will start operation in April 2008 with a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs a year and will reach full capacity two years later. KGL PI, a subsidiary of Kuwait s transport giant KGL, expects an internal rate of return of more than 15 percent annually throughout the duration of the contract. It currently manages Kuwait s Shuaiba port with a capacity of 300,000 TEUs a year but plans to invest $60 million to increase the capacity to one million TEUs. KGL PI is managing the northern terminal at Saudi Jeddah Islamic Port with an annual capacity of 1.5 million TEUs. It is also building Sager Port in Ras Al-Khaima in the United Arab Emirates and is slated to begin operations in January 2007 with 350,000 TEUs annually. Under a 21-year concession agreement, KGL PI plans to raise the port capacity to 850,000 TEUs by 2008 and to three million in 2013, Mazeedi said. The company was awarded a 30-year concession contract to build a container port in Iraq s southern port of Umm Qasr with a capacity for one million TEUs annually. The contract, awaiting signature by the Iraqi government, involves $200 million in investments. KGL PI is currently at different levels of negotiations with several countries to manage 12 ports in multi-billion-dollar deals, Mazeedi said. The bids include two ports in Iran, one each in Syria and Sudan and an undisclosed number of ports in India, Kenya, the Maldives and others. AFP
Kuwaiti company to build major container terminal in Egypt
