Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed port handled 518,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), up 2 percent over the previous year, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports Company said on Tuesday.
Tony Douglas said Mina Zayed’s operations will move to the new Khalifa Port in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“Ninety-five percent of containers that come to Mina Zayed stays in Abu Dhabi, it is a destination port, so Khalifa Port will become a destination port,” he told a conference organized by London-based MEED.
Abu Dhabi Ports Company is developing the $2.18 billion Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone and plans an up to $1 billion bond in the first quarter to help finance the project.
When the Khalifa Port’s first phase becomes operational in 2012, it will have capacity of 2 million containers and 9 million tones of cargo a year, four times higher than existing capacity at Abu Dhabi’s main Mina Zayed port.
Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure, real estate and tourism to diversify its economy away from oil.
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