New grain and fertiliser terminal at Djibouti

The new terminal is designed to handle cereals and fertilisers while minimising port congestion and turnaround time for bulk vessels,generating employment locally and expediting the delivery of food aid to neighbouring countries.

Michael Nzai, operations manager at Société Djiboutienne du Terminal Vraquier, said the first vessel to use the facility, Liberty Grace, arrived on January 9 and was unloaded using two Vigan pneumatic unloaders of 300 tonnes/ hour and several belt conveyor systems with a discharge capacity of in excess of 10,000 tonnes/day.

The whole operation took four to five days, rather than 10-12 days as would have been the case in the past.