DP World has signed the agreement to develop and run Senegal's busiest container facility, the Terminal o Conteneur in Dakar.
The Arab state-owned operator has also confirmed a total investment of $709 million which is a 25% jump from the $534 million it originally pledged when it was awarded the 25-year concession to develop, manage and operate the port of Dakar.
The $709 million investment will be spent upgrading Terminal o Conteneur and building and developing a new container facility, the Port du Futur.
Initial reports said that DP World would take over management of the Terminal o Conteneur by the end of this year, while $163 million was pledged to purchase equipment and upgrade infrastructure.
This first phase development, scheduled to begin early-2008, will double the terminal's container handling capacity from a current 250,000 TEUs to an expected 550,000 TEUs when fully operational by 2010.
A second phase development will see DP World design, finance, construct and manage a new container terminal, the Port du Futur, which is expected to have a handling capacity of 1.5 million TEUs.
The Port du Futur terminal is scheduled to be operational by early-2011 and the entire project will require around $476 million in investments from DP World.
The concession for port development comes after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in December 2006 between the Senegalese government and the operator's sister company Jafza International for the development of an integrated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Dakar.
DP World parent company Dubai World has described Senegal as ¡°the most forward looking West African nation¡± and has reportedly been looking for investment opportunities.
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