Tuesday, March 19, 2024
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Doraleh Container marks anniversary

Share

The Doraleh Container Terminal Management Company (SGTD) has celebrated the first anniversary of controlling the container terminal in Djibouti by announcing that it has registered massive improvements with regard to port handling when compared with the previous management.
During the first year anniversary, celebrated at Sheraton Addis at a gala dinner ceremony, Abdillahi Adaweh, CEO of SGTD, announced that several improvements in container handling and fleets will take place in the coming months to make the port even more compatible with international standards.

Photo: Anteneh Aklilu

The anniversary attended by government officials of Ethiopia and representatives from Djibouti including the Djibouti diplomatic community here said this is a great thing for both countries.
“We have decided to celebrate our first anniversary with our first customer in Ethiopia,” Abdillahi Adaweh, said that the celebration.
“After the audit assessment was undertaken when we took control of the company the major challenge was to cope with the customer needs. Then we discovered there were some constrains like equipment and space and we had to work hard to find short, middle and long term solutions and we are working on it but we are already in far away better shape than one year ago,” the CEO said.
On February 22nd 2018 the government of Djibouti annulled the management agreement with DP World at the Doraleh Container Terminal, which is managed by two thirds of the government and the balance by the company.
According to the presentation of the CEO the company has registered several improved performances regarding handling of containers every month.
“From September up to now we are far higher than what was the former operator was doing. Even in February, which is the low season, we achieved 35 percent more than a year ago performance,” he said.
“In general we have registered 45 percent higher than a year ago,” he added.
He said that the movement of import containers is going well.
According to the presentation of the CEO the export of full container has reached over 7 thousand in one month, which was not registered in the past season of the former manager a year ago.
Regarding export full containers improve volume by increasing the quota of stuffing, which was limited, from 200 to 300 per day when possible and request the shipping lines to load as soon as possible. “Now there is not limitation on stuffing on the container at the port,” Abdillahi Adaweh said.

Photo: Anteneh Aklilu

The CEO said that the export of empty container has reached on maximum level in the year. The presentation indicates that the empty container export volume in October is over 29 thousand, which is not registered compared with a year ago performance.
The CEO indicated that the number of vessels has gone down in the period compared with a year ago, which is a good a news since the port is handling big ships that has lower unitary cost for customer than using medium vessels.
The presentation indicated that the number of vessels has been reduced by 16 percent compared with a year ago.
The berth movement per hour has also significantly increased in the past one year and reached up to 78 containers that were 59. “This factor is the main important and impacting factor for the shipping line and their cost in the terminal-SGTD target is to reach the highest international level of 100 moves per hour by the fourth quarter of 2019,”
The number of cargo stay days has also been improving, according to the CEO.
The CEO indicated that several improvements including adding storage yards and handling of cargo to the fleet to Ethiopia will occur. The rail fleet is promising and should accelerate the rate of moving containers from or to Ethiopia.
He also said they have added 3 reach stackers to support train activity. He added that new RTG, which is a mobile gantry crane used in intermodal operations to ground or stack containers, will be also added in April to accelerate the activity at the port, while an additional 8 RTG will arrive in September to replace the old RTGs and boost the rail activity another 2 RTG will start operation in the forth quarter of 2019.

Read more