“While the first phase is expected to be completed by June 2018, total construction, including the terminal and all other infrastructure, is expected to be completed around middle of 2019,” Erwin Mortelmans, commercial director at PDC, said.
Mortelmans was speaking at Port of Duqm’s third logistics seminar which was held at Hormuz Grand Hotel on Wednesday under the auspices of H E Said bin Hamdoun al Harthy, Undersecretary of Ports and Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Transport and Communication. The seminar was attended by a number of senior officials from the logistic sector.
Reggy Vermeulen, chief executive officer of PDC, said “The company seeks to hold yearly meetings with its various stakeholders. But given the current fast pace of developments in the entire Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZD) and the port in particular, it is even more important to provide a complete update on what has been realised so far, the short and midterm plans and emphasise what it means for each of their businesses.”
Jurgen Vanhove, port operations director at PDC, said once Duqm port starts full-fledged operation in 2019, it will have a 2.2km long commercial berth, a 2.2km long container berth, 1km long government berth and a break bulk berth for miscellaneous cargoes.
The company plans to increase the container terminal capacity to 3.5mn TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) when the terminal will be working at its maximum capacity.
Vanhove said the Duqm port started operations for importing project cargoes and exporting dolomite, after its soft opening a couple of years ago. He added that there is a scope to ramp up exports from the port as a number of companies are looking to export minerals such as limestone and gypsym from this region.
Since the opening of its early operations in March 2013, Duqm port received more than 500 different vessels. The port is expected to achieve a steady growth in 2017 and 2018 followed by a much steeper growth from 2019, once the major works in the ports are commissioned and the infrastructure is fully handed over.
Duqm port lies officially under the management of PDC, a 50:50 joint venture between the Omani government and the Consortium Antwerp Port (CAP).
