European and international lenders have lined up USD 455 mn in financing for a second cargo terminal at Damietta port, a Transport Ministry statement said on Thursday.

Driving the operation: A consortium of Hapag-lloyd, MELC Group, Eurogate Terminals, Contship Italia, and Ship & Crew have established a special purpose vehicle, the Damietta Alliance Container Terminals (DACT). DACT will manage and operate Damietta Port’s second container terminal under a 30-year concession, the statement said.

Funding the project: Our friends at HSBC Egypt acted as the agent bank for the international lenders that will provide a USD 455 mn financing package for the project.

Who’s in? EBRD, the International Finance Corporation, China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), development finance player Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), and the French Development Agency’s private-sector investment arm Proparco, an EBRD statement said.

BY THE NUMBERS:

  • USD 125 mn will come from the EBRD;
  • USD 120 mn from the IFC;
  • USD 100 mn from the AIIB;
  • USD 60 mn from the DEG;
  • and USD 50 mn from Proparco.

What we know: The terminal will have a capacity of 3.5 mn TEUs, tripling the port’s capacity. The project will create some 80k jobs directly and indirectly by 2038, the EBRD added. As you typically see when money from development finance institutions comes into play, DACT will develop an environmental and social management system for the port and invest in vocational training to make jobs accessible to local residents.

The terminal is expected to begin operating next year, the ministry has previously said.

Damietta as a hub of development: The project is the first phase of the Damietta integrated logistics hub, which will link Damietta Port to industrial centers across the country via railway, the ministry said last year.

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