Egypt awards $500m contract to build new container terminal

REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) has signed a $500 million contract with the Suez Canal Container Company (SCCT) to establish a second container handling terminal in East Port Said, it said in a statement.

The project aims to expand the existing SCCT’s container terminal at Port Said East Port, with extra length of 955 metres and increase the handling yard by 510,000 square metres.

The terminal is currently operating with a berth length of 2,400 metres and a handling yard of 1.2 million sq m, as the main operator in Port Said East Port, with annual throughput of four million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs).

Steven Yoogalinga,  CEO and managing director of SCCT, said the investment will increase volume by and additional two million TEUs per year.

He also stated the new technologically advanced half-automated terminal shall be operated by clean and renewable energy.

The statement said that the board of directors of SCZONE recently approved the container handling terminal and several projects to accelerate the pace of work in the green fuel industry, as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the first facility of green hydrogen production in SCZONE during Cop27.

SCCT achieved one of the highest container handling rates during one shift (12 hours) on October 6, 2022, reaching 6,800 moves, with a handling rate average of 42 miles per hour per crane.