SIMIC

A Hapag-Lloyd statement declared that Eurogate and Contship Italia would be its joint venture partners in the scheme.

Hapag-Lloyd Damietta GmbH will take a 39 per cent stake, Eurogate Damietta GmbH 29.5 per cent and Contship Damietta Srl, 29.5 per cent.

Two minority local shareholders will each take one per cent.

Located 39 miles from Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT), the development emphasizes Egypt's growing attractiveness as a trade hub at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

AD Ports is also signing an agreement to develop Egypt's Safaga Port

"This is a very encouraging, well-planned partnership of the international and Egyptian private sector in order to position Egypt as a global hub for logistics and trade," said Egyptian Transport Minister, Kamel Al-Wazir.

"In this first phase, we will establish the port of Damietta as an integrated logistics hub for containers, which will then be followed by the establishment of logistic corridors reaching different manufacturing areas in Egypt by railway network," said Lieut-General Al-Wazir.