Port partnership signed

Joint venture will develop port infrastructure

CONGO: AD Ports Group and the CMA CGM Group have formed a joint venture to develop, manage, and operate New East Mole multipurpose terminal at the Port of Pointe Noire in the Republic of the Congo.

The shareholders’ agreement was signed yesterday, and the new joint venture will operate the terminal for which AD Ports Group received a 30-year extendable concession in June 2023 to handle containers, general, break-bulk and other types of cargo at the Central West African nation’s biggest Atlantic port.

At the time it obtained the concession, AD Ports Group said it expected to invest about USD 220 million (AED 807 million) to build a 400-metre quay wall at 16-metre depth, plus a 10-hectare logistics area, during Phase 1 of the project.

With this new agreement, AD Ports Group and the CMA CGM Group are further cementing their partnership after the inauguration of CMA Terminals Khalifa Port last December, a AED 3.1 billion (USD 845 million) container terminal that will eventually expand Khalifa Port’s container capacity of 7.8 million Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2024 by 33% or 2.6 million TEUs.

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