DP World Plans Major Jebel Ali Port Expansion

DP World plans to invest $850 million over the next three years to boost the capacity of its flagship container terminal at Jebel Ali in Dubai by more than 26 percent.

The Dubai-based port operator said Monday the investment will add an additional 4 million 20-foot equivalent container units of annual capacity, bringing the total capacity at Jebel Ali to 19 million TEUs by 2014.

DP World, the world’s third-largest terminal operator, will reconfigure 6,100 feet of berth and 173 acres of yard space from an existing general cargo berth into a new container terminal within the existing container port. The investment will be financed from existing cash resources and cash flow.

The new terminal, which will have a draft of 58 feet, will be able to handle the world’s largest container vessels planned for the future, DP world said.

The container volume handled by DP World at its 60 container terminals worldwide increased by 11 percent to 40.6 million TEUs in the nine months through October, with average throughput of more than 1million TEUs monthly.

-- Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.