Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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SGTD goes big to accommodate world’s largest vessel

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Expansion to prove pivotal for cost of Ethiopian cargos

One of the top 20 well performing port facilities in the world, Doraleh Container Terminal Management Company(SGTD) of Djibouti is undertaking massive expansion to accommodate the next generation container vessels ‘Malaccamax’ that would ripple down to ease the cost of Ethiopian cargos and expand the operation of transshipment.
The state of the art port facility has also expanded its storage yard at an investment of USD 30 million.
The facility which has the capacity to berth virtually any sized vessel in the world stated that it is investing on additional ship to shore (STS) container cranes besides its current chain of eight cranes.
Abdillahi Adaweh Sigad, Chief Executive Officer of SGTD, told Capital that the logistics facility located at the entrance to the Red Sea has hired the sector prominent German company, Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd, to supply the Megamax STS cranes at a total investment of USD 44 million.
“The four new generation cranes are coming in May,” he explained.
The new expansion will allow the container terminal to handle the latest generation of Triple E class (3E) Class of vessels like Malaccamax with a capacity of over 22,000 TEUs from the current infrastructure, Super Post Panamax quay cranes.
“Currently, we are in the capacity to handle a vessel with 15,000 TEUs, but as we continue to expand we shall have the required capacity to manage the maximum vessel existing in any part of the world,” the CEO explained. Currently, SGTD is handling up to 40 container vessels per month.
Besides that the facility is also undertaking a container stacking yard expansion.
“Our performance in terms of efficiency is increase steadily in the past few years. New investments will see us increase the storage capacity by 20 percent and with commissioned four key cranes, the two assets will combine to uplift the containers terminal capacity by double,” Adaweh Sigad said, adding, “The new STS cranes will increase the crane capacity by 50 percent.”
“Key operation capacity by yard will enable the terminal to double its operation,” he explained.
The storage expansion work that cost USD 30 million will increase the accommodation capacity from 1.6 million TEUs to 2million TEUs per year and will further strengthen the leading position of the Doraleh Terminal in the region.
Regarding the harbor, SGTD has a capacity to handle any huge vessels in the world, while at the berth the eight STS cranes shall manage the vessel with 15,000 TEUs that will expand to a vessel with 23,000 TEUs when the new expansion becomes operational in the near future.

(Photo: Anteneh Aklilu)

“Now Ethiopian customers shall contract any type of vessels for their incoming cargos unlike in the past due to that we invested in additional cranes and yard,” Adaweh Sigad added.
The expansion has also been expected to boost the promising business, transshipment, and any transit services in the region.
According to the CEO, the expansion also targets the regional growing demand in the logistics sector.
He said that the transshipment business is also benefiting the Ethiopian customers and vessel operator since they shall get slots at affordable rates from global shipping lines who engage on the transshipment business through the regional hub, Djibouti.
On the 2021 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) that was produced by the Transport Global Practice of the World Bank in collaboration with the Maritime, Trade and Supply Chain division of S&P Global Market Intelligence, SGTD was recognized as one of the well performing ports in the world, ranked 19th overall. On the 2020 CPPI raking, the port registered significant points as top in the Sub Saharan Africa, and similarly late last year it was awarded the European Quality Award from European Society of Quality Research for its operation in different parameters.

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