Somaliland and DP world open new terminal at Berbera Port

Somaliland president Muse Bihi Abdi, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World, yesterday officially opened the new container terminal at port Berber. This is the first phase of the port’s expansion as part of its development into a major regional trade hub to serve the Horn of Africa.

The special event which included a symbolic ground-breaking for the new Berbera Economic Zone, the first phase of which is under construction, was attended by over 200 guests, including a Government delegation from Ethiopia, led by Ahmed Shide, the Ethiopian minister of finance.

The new container terminal with a deep draft of 17 metres, a quay of 400 metres and three ship to shore (STS) gantry cranes, can handle the largest container vessels in operation today, and increases the port’s container capacity from current 150,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) to 500,000 TEUs annually.

The terminal also includes a modern container yard with eight rubber tyred gantry cranes (RTGs).
A new port One Stop Service Centre is also currently being built and will be ready in quarter three this year.

DP World has committed to investing up to US$442 million to develop and expand Berbera Port, and with the first phase now complete. Bin Sulayem also announced that work is already underway to further expand the port in a second phase.

DP World Berbera, which began operations at the port in March 2017, has since increased volumes by 35 percent and vessel productivity by 300 percent, and reduced container vessel waiting time to only a few hours.

DP World and the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in May 2021, with the aim of developing the Ethiopian side of the road linking Addis Ababa to Berbera, into one of the major trade and logistics corridors of the country’s international trade routes.