Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) has signed a 30 year concession for Khalifa Port Container Terminal 1 and completed the strategic redirection of its container traffic from Mina Zayed to the port in Taweelah, 60km east of Abu Dhabi.
The concession was signed this week with Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) and will include the exclusive right to manage and operate the port's first container terminal.
Just recently, the Messina Line, one of ADT's customers which incidentally was the first line to call at Mina Zayed in 1995, became the last of 24 shipping lines to graduate its container business to the new port.
ADT says that the strategic redirection of container traffic to Khalifa Port means that Abu Dhabi’s ports will now have the capacity to handle more containers, more cargo and more cruise liners.
Martijn Van de Linde, chief executive, ADT, said: “The extra capacity gives every business and government entity in Abu Dhabi the means to grow and develop. Khalifa Port is an engine driving Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification.”
Further, he points out that Khalifa will have deep berths which will “enable us to take the big ‘main line’ ships from Europe and Asia for the first time and eliminate the need for feeder ships to service the local market from larger regional ports” - a crucial step on Abu Dhabi’s journey to becoming an international shipping hub.
Most commercial business will now be handled at Khalifa, but Mina Zayed will continue to handle cruise liners and locally bound dry bulk cargo. Being only six months younger than the UAE itself, Mina Zayed was once a hub for the Gulf and the Indian Subcontinent, but Khalifa is currently able to handle 2.5m teu annually which in future could be expanded to 5m teu.
