Dubai Ports World (DP World), one of world's biggest sea terminal operators, saw its traffic doubling in the first six months of this year, compared with Agigea Sud container terminal's capacity at the time of its acquisition in 2004.
Early this year, DP World caused uproar in the US Congress, when it announced takeover of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami harbours management, following the acquisition of British company, P&O.
In December 2003, DP World signed an agreement with the National Administration of Maritime Harbours Constanta (CNAPM), offering 85 million dollars (68 million euros) to rent the container terminal in the Agigea Sud harbour for an eighteen-year period.
DP World's massive investments in the expansion of the operating capacity of Constanta South Container Terminal (CSCT) made turnover increase by 5.6 times, from 3.7 million euros in 2004 to 20.9 million euros in 2005, according to data provided by the Finance Ministry.
Whereas CSCT had an operating capacity of 200.000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) at the opening, due to the high demands for transportation by containers and to the investments in operating capacity's expansion, the terminal reached to a traffic of 397,442 TEU in first half of 2006, rising by 56%, against the similar period of last year.
"The factors that contributed to this growth were the global rising trend of traffic by containers, as well as attracting new clients by confirming the productivity of the services provided," stated Roxana Daraban, commercial manager with CSCT.
Total container traffic registered by CSCT in 2005 amounted to 581,533 TEU.
CSCT container terminal, located to the south of Constanta harbour, close to the connection between harbour basin and Danube - Black Sea Canal, was designed in three development stages, with an operating capacity of 800,000 - 1,000,000 TEU projected for the final stage.
The first stage of the project required investment worth 88.3 million dollars (78 million euros) and was 25% self-funded by the National Administration of Maritime Harbours Constanta (CNAPM) and 75% funded through a loan contracted from Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The loan for this project is granted by CNAPM for 20 years, with a ten-year grace period and an interest of 2.7%.
