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Africa Focus
GREEN RECLAMATION FOR PORT EXPANSION
Egypt is reclaiming nearly 1000ha of new land for the maritime gateway’s development, but it’s doing it responsibly, says Shem Oirere
It’s doing this with the help of Belgian-based global capital and maintenance dredging specialist, Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering (DEME) which is dredging an estimated 150 million cubic meters of material at the Abu Qir port.
Reclaiming the new land is part of the more than EUR 300-million-dollar project DEME has been awarded by the Egyptian Navy, which has been operating the port on the Mediterranean shores since its inception in 1983.
The project is in line with Egypt’s envisaged national ports development strategy.
Greener dredging
DEME is deepening the Abu Qir’s approach channel to 23m and dredging the turning basin to 22m. This will enable to ships at the port, located 20km North East of Alexandria, to achieve reduced turnaround times and improve the competitiveness of Egypt’s overall maritime transport network.
DEME describes the Abu Qir port project as company’s “largest dredging and land reclamation project in history.”
For the dredging assignment, DEME has deployed one of the largest and most powerful self-propelled cutter suction dredgers (CSD), the Spartacus, which the company says has an “eco-friendly design”.
The CSD’s four engines can run on Low Sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil, Marine Oil as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) with its two auxiliary engines having dual-fuel technology.
DEME’s vessel also has a waste heat recovery system that converts the heat from the engines’ exhaust gases into electrical energy.
“Spartacus sets a new benchmark in the global dredging market. Its groundbreaking, eco-friendly design and countless innovations on board make it one of a kind. Spartacus is the world’s largest and most powerful selfpropelled cutter suction dredge and also the first able to run on liquefied natural gas,” the company says.
Construction
DEME’s consortium partner, GIECO, Egypt’s leading marine engineering company, is erecting 6,800m of quay walls for new berths, 8,800m of breakwaters and soil improvement works under the same contract.
In August 2020, the Egyptian Navy signed a long-term agreement with Hutchison Ports for the development and operation of the new container terminal at the Abu Qir port.
Hutchison said the new terminal “will have a handling capacity of 2 million TEU upon completion and a total quay length of 1,200 metres with a draft of 18 metres capable of handling mega vessels of the future.”
Both the Chinese company and Egyptian Navy plan to invest more than US$730 million in development of the terminal within the 38-year concession period. Commercial operations are slated to commence in 2022.
DEME explains the ambitious port expansion “creates land for the expansion and further development of Abu Qir, which boasts an ancient history and is slated to become a bustling economic hub, supplementing nearby Alexandria.”
Egypt’s maritime transport continues to grapple with challenges that have been blamed for the stalling of a previous master plan that the North African country touted as an answer to achieving its long-held dream of turning itself into a regional hub for transshipments and containerised trade.
According to the World Bank, the previous port development master plan stalled “due to conflicts of interest and multiple functions of the port authorities and maritime transport sector, and their related logistics services.”
8 Spartacus is one
