THT-After successfully closing the first phase of the expansion of the port of Berbera in Somaliland, the Emirati port logistics giant, DP World, is embarking on the second. Its objective: to make Berbera a focal point for world maritime trade. To the detriment of the port of Doraleh, located in the neighboring city-state of Djibouti.
$ 442 million. This is the amount that the Emirati company DP World has pledged to invest to make the port of Berbera a hub for African and global maritime trade. An increasingly concrete objective.
“One major commercial hub in the region”
Ideally located in the Horn of Africa, the port of Berbera has just inaugurated, at the end of June, in the presence of His Excellency Muse Bihi Abdi, President of Somaliland, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, President of the Group and CEO of DP World, its brand new container terminal. With a draft of 17 meters, a quay of 400 meters and three ship to shore gantries , it is able to accommodate the largest container ships of the moment. Furthermore, this new terminal increases the port’s capacity from 150,000 twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) to 500,000 TEUs per year.
“This is a historic and proud moment for Somaliland and its people, as the completion of the first phase has made our vision to make Berbera, through its strategic location, a major trade hub in the region, a reality ”, declared the President of Somaliland during the inauguration ceremony. “The port of Berbera will play an important role in our country’s plan to develop multiple additional transport corridors to meet the needs of our fast-growing economy,” said Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia’s Minister of Transport.
If the story was the same for Ahmed bin Sulayem, the CEO of DP World is already thinking about the future: “our work to make Berbera a major port in the Horn of Africa and for Africa from the East does not stop there. Work is already underway to continue expanding the port in a second phase, ”he said. He continued: “this phase, which constitutes a crucial part of our commitment to invest up to $ 442 million in the port of Berbera, will include an extension of the quay of the new container terminal by more than double its current length, reaching a total of 1,000 meters. We will also install additional quay cranes to increase the port’s handling capacity to 2 million TEU per year ”.
Double penalty for Djibouti
In the words of the strong man of DP World, therefore, the port of Berbera is promoted to a bright future. Which is reminiscent of the one Djibouti could boast of a few years ago. But that was without counting on the unilateral decision of the Djiboutian authorities, in 2018, to regain control of the Doraleh container terminal from DP World, at the origin of its design and its operator since 2006.
By this maneuver, probably as illegal – if we are to believe, among other things, the decision of the International Court of Arbitration in London of July 7 – as unexpected, the Djiboutian government has, it seems, condemned the dreams of grandeur of the small country of the Horn of Africa. Worse still, it now sees its neighbor becoming the regional hub to which it has always aspired, all under the leadership of its former partner, DP World: “at 500,000 TEU per year, phase 1 of the port of Berbera makes it bigger than Djibouti ”, announced the British journalist Rageh Omaar on Twitter, on the occasion of the inauguration of the new container terminal.
A harsh reality for Djibouti, to which is added the series of legal defeats – seven in all – experienced by his government, now condemned to pay several hundred million dollars in damages to Emirati society. What relay the 30% increase in traffic recorded in 2020 by the port of Doraleh – the highest on the continent, but explained by the global health situation which has hampered the development of its competitors – to the rank of consolation prize.