21% increase in ships received by Damietta port in FY 2017/2018

Daily News Egypt
3 Min Read

The chairperson of the Damietta Port Authority (DPA) Major General Ayman Saleh, said that the port has achieved many strategic plans, which contributed to a significant increase in its performance rates. The port saw a noticeable increase in the movement of ships and cargo in fiscal year (FY) 2017/2018 compared to the previous year.

The port received 3,122 ships compared to 2,590 ships last year with 21% increase.

The total capacity of the port is 40m tonnes in last FY, compared to 33.3m tonnes in 2016/2017 with an increase of 20%.

The total traded vessels at the port reached 1.32m compared to 990,000 in 2016/2017 with 33% increase.

The wait time of ships at the port declined by 15%, and the average time ships spend at the port declined by the same percentage.

The occupancy rates of the port’s berths reached 88% in general goods compared to 82% in the FY before, as for the containers’ berths, the occupancy rates reached 62% last year.

Saleh added that the port has participated in supporting the infrastructure of Egyptian ports. Recently, several projects have been established, the most important of which is a berth for general goods with a length of 340m and a depth of 12m, in addition to a berth of a length 90m and a depth of 8m.

Two environment-friendly reservoirs on an area of 3000 sqm and 5000 sqm were also established. The naval corridor, the rotation basin, and the berths were all deepened. Additionally, an integrated treatment plant was established.

Currently, a multi-purpose station with a length of 630m and a depth of 17m is being constructed at a cost of EGP 1.365bn. Trial operation of that station is set to start by the end of 2018.

The chairperson of the DPA said that the port has contributed to improving Egypt’s position in the field of seaports in the 2017/2018 International Competitiveness Report, where the arrangement of the Egyptian ports infrastructure improved and ranked 41th after being ranked 66th in 2014/2015.

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