ADT completes Khalifa Port transition
ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi Terminals, or ADT, on Sunday said it has completed the strategic redirection of its container traffic from the confines of downtown Abu Dhabi to Khalifa Port three months ahead of schedule.
Published: Mon 10 Dec 2012, 10:03 PM
Updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 7:27 AM
The move of container trade from Mina Zayed, a long-established port that has served Abu Dhabi for over 40 years, to Khalifa Port, the region’s newest and only semi-automated terminal, was completed in less than three months after the new port began commercial operations on September 1.
“With the strategic redirection of container traffic to Khalifa Port, Abu Dhabi’s ports have the capacity to handle more containers, more cargo and more cruise liners,” ADT chief executive officer Martijn Van de Linde said in an e-mailed statement to Khaleej Times.
“The extra capacity gives every business and government entity in Abu Dhabi the means to grow and develop.”
He said Khalifa Port is an engine driving Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification.
The last container vessel to call at Mina Zayed was the Jolly Arancione voy 290, a ship belonging to Italy-headquartered Messina Line. The mixed-use ship can transport 1,800 TEU, an industry term for twenty-foot-long containers, on its deck and dozens of wheeled vehicles in a seven-level multi-storey car park in its hull.
“Personally, I’m leaving a piece of my heart here,” said Capt Giordano Gelasini, Messina Line’s resident regional director for the Middle East, as he stood on the bridge, watching the gantry cranes unload containers for storage among the remaining boxes in the yard.
“We were the first to call at Abu Dhabi and we will be the last,” the Capt Gelasini, who started working for Messina Line nearly 30 years ago, added. “We have more history with Mina Zayed than any other shipping line. We were the first to believe in this city and we’ve grown together.”
Mina Zayed started operating in June 1972, making it just six months younger than the UAE. It will continue to welcome cruise liners and deliver dry bulk cargo, such as granules of steel or grain, break bulk cargo, including large materials for infrastructure projects, and roll-on/roll-off cargo — wheeled vehicles — to the local market. Messina Line will be the last of 24 major shipping lines to swiftly graduate their local container businesses to the new port at Taweelah.
“For many years, Mina Zayed was our hub for the upper and lower Gulf and the Indian Subcontinent, but now, we are looking ahead to the new and very impressive Khalifa Port. Its technology and infrastructure will enable it to turn around vessels much more efficiently, and the time saved will benefit our customers,” Capt Gelasini said.
Mina Zayed handled around 770,000 TEU in 2011. With an initial capacity to handle 2.5 million TEU annually and the potential to expand to five million, Khalifa Port more than compensates for the capacity lost by the end of the container business near the city centre. It can also handle 12 million tonnes of general cargo every year.
Khalifa Port — a spacious new terminal 60 kilometres east of the city centre — has six of the world’s largest ship-to-shore cranes and an automated stacking system that is more advanced than any other port facility in the Middle East. Its deep-sea berths can accommodate the largest container vessels roaming the seas.
“The deep berths will enable us to take the big ‘main line’ ships from Europe and Asia for the first time and eliminate the need for feeder ships to service the local market from larger regional ports,” Van de Linde said. “This is a crucial step on Abu Dhabi’s journey to becoming an international shipping hub.
“Messina Line was one of the first to believe in Abu Dhabi and now it’s putting its faith in Khalifa Port. We look forward to welcoming its ships with higher productivity than ever before.”