The agreement includes   establishing, developing of the superstructure, using, managing, operating, maintaining and re-delivery of the second container terminal “Tahya Misr 1” in Damietta Port.

“The agreement is the first of its kind in the history of the maritime transport and logistics industry in Egypt. This largest European global shipping alliance will pump Half a billion dollars’ worth of investment for the first phase of the project. This action reflects big confidence in the Egyptian administration and the strength of the Egyptian economy”. Minister of Transport Kamel Al wazir said.

Egypt is taking major steps towards becoming a global center for trade and logistics, in implementation of the directives of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The project is a major step for Egypt in the global trade arena and would create more than 1,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.

The project comes in line with the political leadership ‘s directives to encourage partnership with the international and Egyptian private sector in executing major national projects and to attract international shipping lines to Egyptian ports.

The agreement, signed in the presence of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Transport Minister Kamel Al Wazir, for using, managing and operating and maintaining and re-delivery of the Second Container Terminal “Tahya Misr 1”.

The deal was signed by DPA as first party and Damietta Container Co. Alliance (Eurogate Germany, Contship Italia and Hapag-Lloyd consortium) as second party. His Excellency Italian Ambassador and German Vice Ambassador also attended signing of contract.

DPA Chairman Ahmed Hawash represented first party in the contract while Chairman of Board of Directors of Eurogate Thomas Eckelmann, President of Contship Italia Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello and Regional President of Hapag-Lloyd Juan Pablo as the second party.

According to the contract 1,970 meters long berth will be built at a depth of 18 meters with capacity to accommodate 4.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers. Terminal backyard will reach 910 m2.

Arab Contractors-Archirodon consortium is working now for DPA on completing terminal infrastructure by December 2022 at a cost hitting EGP 4.5 billion.

The prime minister hailed efforts exerted by all concerned parties during negotiation process that culminated into  signing this key agreement which according to Madbouly  falls within the framework of the State’s keenness to turn Egypt into a global trade hub.

The premier said the government is keen to offer all means of support and facilitation to the private sector as well as to the domestic and foreign investors in a way that helps lure further investments.

The Minister of Transport confirmed that all negotiations and project procedures took place in absolute transparency, and careful review was carried out by all parties for a period of two years. State Council reviewed and Egyptian Cabinet approved the contract. Egyptian Parliament okayed it as well. Cairo Center for Arbitration will conduct any arbitration relevant to the contract which denotes   investor confidence in the Egyptian Judiciary.

The Egyptian Minister of Transport, Lieutenant-General Eng. Kamel Al-Wazir, commented, “This is a very encouraging, well-planned partnership of international and Egyptian private sector in order to position Egypt as a global hub for logistics and trade. In this first phase, we will establish the port of Damietta as an integrated logistics hub for containers, then be followed by the establishment of logistic corridors reaching to different manufacturing areas in Egypt by railway network.”

It is worth noting that Eurogate Germany, in partnership with Contship Italia, is one of the largest and leading independent container terminal operators in Europe and the Mediterranean. The group operates a network of container terminals in 12 locations from the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean region, in addition to handling services Containers in seaports, in addition to managing and operating container terminals, the group provides value-added multimodal transport services and logistic centers, and the shipping line “Hapag-Lloyd” owns a fleet of 253 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.8 million TEUs. “One of the world’s leading ocean freight companies, with 421 offices in 137 countries, a container fleet of approximately 3.1 million TEUs, including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers, and 126 liner services worldwide Express connections Trusted by more than 600 outlets on all continents, it is one of the leaders in the transatlantic trade lanes, the Middle East and the Americas.