Alexandria’s first dry port opens tomorrow as container traffic through the city’s ports climbs 14%

Alexandria is getting a dry port to help its seaports handle a surge in transit cargo. El Amreya Dry Port, Alexandria’s first and Egypt’s second after Sixth of October, opens tomorrow, 13 October — pushed back two days from the originally planned 11 October — CEO Ahmed Abul-Hassan tells EnterpriseAM. Container traffic through Alexandria and Dekheila rose 14% to 2.59 mn TEUs in FY 2025/26, according to Alexandria Port Authority’s Annual Statistical Report (pdf). Transit led the growth as shippers leaned on Mediterranean gateways while geopolitical tensions affected Red Sea ports.

Why it matters: Dry ports move part of a seaport’s storage, handling, and customs work inland, so containers spend less time on the quay and goods move faster and more cheaply between factories, ports, and markets. El Amreya is the first dry port to serve Alexandria directly and one of 33 dry ports and logistics zones the Transport Ministry plans nationwide.

What’s inside

It’s built as a logistics hub: Total port investment stands at approximately EGP 700 mn, according to the dry port’s general manager Wafaa El Sayed Ibrahim. The dry port is owned by the National Service Projects Organization and operated by Safety Link Shipping & Trade under a 25-year contract, Almasry Alyoum reports. Safety Link, which was awarded the tender to develop the facility, sees it as an integrated logistics corridor serving exporters and every link in the supply chain, Chairman Ahmed Mustafa tells us.

“It wasn’t designed as a storage or real estate project — it’s a strategic gateway,” Ibrahim tells us. It sits on 146k sqm along the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, 22 km from Alexandria Port, 18 km from Dekheila, and 16 km from Borg El Arab Airport and the industrial city. The container yard spans 75k sqm with a capacity of 3.1k FEU (forty-foot containers), handling empty, full, export, import, and transit containers including hazardous goods and chemicals. The site includes a reefer station with 826 connection points, a cold storage complex with 10k tons of freezing and chilling maximum capacity, a 100-ton certified scale, and a 38-truck waiting area.

Connected from day one: El Amreya will open with a connection to Nafeza, Egypt’s national single window for foreign trade, to process customs procedures digitally, Ibrahim says. The facility will also integrate with the national railway network, targeting a 15-20% reduction in cargo transport costs, she adds. A Qatar National Bank Al Ahly branch on site handles customer transactions. The Misr Technology Services (MTS) logistics center organizes procedures and operations within the port, giving access to cargo owners across different services within the same facility, Abul-Hassan tells us.

Why Alexandria needs the room

Transit is doing the heavy lifting: Transit containers through Alexandria and Dekheila jumped 74% in FY 2025/26 to 553.4k TEUs from 317.4k a year earlier, with transit tonnage up 62% to 5.78 mn tons. Loaded containers serving the local market grew more slowly, up 6% to 1.59 mn TEUs from 1.50 mn, while empties slipped 1.3% to 446.5k TEUs. Total container tonnage rose 11% to 28.31 mn tons.

The ships followed: Container vessel calls increased 7% to 2.2k, while ferries climbed 26% to 221. Liquid bulk calls rose 5% to 658, while dry bulk held flat at 818. Egypt is also working as an overland bridge for some of that traffic, with shippers routing Europe-GCC cargo through Egypt: trailers land at Damietta, move overland to Safaga, and cross to Saudi Arabia.

The port is expecting more of the same: The government has earmarked about EGP 9 bn to upgrade Alexandria’s quays, including finishing work at Al Max port, five breakwaters totaling 6.9k meters, and two new 80-90 ton tugboats, Asharq Business reports, citing unnamed government officials. The Transport Ministry also targets four new shipping lines from Alexandria to Europe and Africa within two years. The ministry is separately aiming to lift commercial port net income about 10% to USD 127.7 mn in FY 2026/27 from USD 115.9 mn.

IN CONTEXT- Tahya Misr terminal has handled 2.6 mn TEU since opening (38% of it transit) with 403 trains moving 39k TEUs to Sixth of October Dry Port, according to a Transport Ministry statement. That model (moving containers from ship to rail to an inland clearance point) is the same play El Amreya is built to replicate for Alexandria and Dekheila: pull cargo off the quay, clear it inland, and release berth space for the next vessel.

How it fits the national plan

The ministry wants a network: The Transport Ministry’s 33 dry ports and logistics zones aim to link manufacturing, agricultural, and mining centers to seaports and consumer markets by road and rail. They sit along seven corridors, which include Arish-Taba, Sokhna-Alexandria, Cairo-Alexandria, Tanta-Mansoura-Damietta, Gargoub-Salloum, Cairo-Aswan-Abu Simbel, and Safaga-Qena-Abu Tartour. El Amreya targets food products, agricultural exports, pharma, and cars, as well as overland transit heading to Libya, Sudan, Jordan, and African markets, Ibrahim says.

More are in the pipeline: Sky Ports is developing a dry port in Alexandria’s New Borg El Arab, with technical studies due for submission early this month. Meanwhile, Medlog’s USD 130 mn Tenth of Ramadan dry port and logistics hub is expected to begin operations in 2027.

What makes it work

The data has to reach the truck: The government is separately working to bring road freight companies into Nafeza, as we’ve previously reported. Carriers need to know what’s been cleared, what’s still outstanding, and who has to act before a truck leaves, or “it’s just earlier waiting,” Trella co-founder and COO Ali El Atrash told us last month. Sokhna offers a template: its planned digital truck yard already uses Nafeza clearance status to manage truck access so drivers don’t make trips for containers that aren’t ready, Egytrans Nosco co-CEO and Nafith Egypt Chairman Abir Leheta previously told us.

Alexandria is a different operating environment: Reliance Operations and Maintenance Services Managing Director Omar Ragheb has cautioned against cutting waiting times at ports only to add them in yards. He also told us Alexandria runs a less structured operation than Sokhna and Safaga, so coordination between El Amreya, the seaports, and truckers will carry more of the load there.

OUR TAKE- Opening day will show the facility is ready. The real test comes a few months in: whether container dwell times at Alexandria and Dekheila start to come down, and whether trucks are picking up boxes that have actually cleared. If El Amreya can make that work in a port as busy as Alexandria, it’s a good sign for the rest of the ministry’s list.

MEANWHILE- As El Amreya prepares to open, Tanzania’s Transport Minister toured Alexandria Port alongside Kamel El Wazir last week. The goal: an Egyptian-led consortium builds and operates a multi-purpose terminal at Dar es Salaam, and Egypt gets a logistics zone in Tanzania while Tanzania gets one here. Both sides are also seeking to link up the zone in Tanzania to its rail network so cargo can reach landlocked neighbors.