DP World finalises Algeria deal

Dubai Port World has agreed on a deal to run the cargo terminal in the Algerian port Djendjen, the port’s managing director, Mohamed Atmane said on Sunday.

A joint Algerian-Emirati company will be set up in the first quarter of 2009 to run the port. The new company will be in charge of the terminal as well as all shipment activities.

The deal will see as many as two million container ships pass through the port each year and will create 1,500 jobs.

Djendjen handled 1,760,000 tonnes of cargo from January to October this year, compared to 1,222,000 tonnes for the same period in 2007, Atmane said.

The port, which opened in 1993, is the most commercially important in Algeria. The Algerian government has recently decided to pass over management duties of a number of cargo terminals to foreign companies.

DP World currently operates 45 terminals, in addition to 13 new developments in the pipeline, across 29 countries. Its throughput of containers in the first half of 2008 increased 21 percent to 13.6 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent container units).