A new container terminal and bulk cargo port will be built in Nigeria to open more trade route options and increase demand for tug operations in West Africa.
Bolloré Ports and PowerChina International Group have secured a contract to build and operate a deepsea port with access to the Gulf of Guinea at Akwa Ibom in Nigeria.
PowerChina will conduct the works required for the port infrastructure and Bolloré Ports will operate container activity at the new port for 50 years. It will work alongside the Nigeria Ports Authority, the Federal Government of Nigeria and Akwa Ibom State.
The Ibom Deep Sea Port (IDSP) will become a new shipping gateway with direct access to Nigeria’s east and north-eastern regions for dry cargo.
“This greenfield project is a game-changer that will reinforce the port system of Nigeria,” said Bolloré Ports chief executive Philippe Labonne, adding that IDSP will also provide a trade gateway for hinterland countries of West Africa.
Construction work will consist of dredging a channel approximately 20 km long and 18 m deep, erecting a 1.1-km breakwater, building a 2.5-km quay and installing dedicated handling equipment.
This quayside will be able to handle containers, general cargo and dry bulk, container ships up to post-Panamax size and 2.24M TEU of freight each year.
Bolloré Ports operates 21 port concessions worldwide, 16 of them in Africa including the Tincan Island container terminal in the port of Lagos.
Bolloré Ports has extended Freetown Gateway in Sierra Leone to open new trading routes for container ships. Bolloré Logistics has also opened a new logistics hub in Lastoursville, Gabon. This is connected to a railway operated by SETRAG, which transports processed wood in containers from forest production sites to the Owendo container terminal.
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