This morning, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, began an extensive inspection tour of a number of projects in the Sokhna Industrial Zone, located within the scope of the Suez Canal Economic Zone. He began by inspecting the development work of Sokhna Port, accompanied by the team, Engineer Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of Transport, Walid Gamal El-Din. , Chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, and Dr. Abdullah Ramadan, Deputy Governor of Suez.
The Prime Minister stressed that this visit comes within the framework of the interest that the state attaches to developing the economic zone, linked to the Suez Canal axis, and providing various capabilities and services in it, to enhance its ability to attract more foreign investments in various sectors, in a way that supports the role of this region in increasing opportunities. Employment, support exports and serve the national economy.
During his tour, Madbouly inspected the Sokhna Port development project, which is considered one of the main components of the Sokhna-Dekheila logistical corridor, and implemented the project to establish the Sokhna-Alexandria integrated logistics axis for containers to link the Red and Mediterranean Bahrain, which is considered the largest logistical corridor serving global trade between East and West.
During his tour of the project, the Prime Minister and his entourage followed the executive position of the first station of the port development project (Hutchison Container Terminal), which was delivered in July 2023 to the largest container terminal operator in the world, Hutchison International, and the global shipping lines alliance COSCO and CMA to develop it as the largest terminal. For containers in Egypt.
For his part, the Minister of Transport indicated that the station is 2,600 meters long and has a total area of 1.6 million square metres, while its capacity is 3.5 million equivalent containers annually. It is planned that the station will allow receiving giant ships with a length of 400 metres, according to the commitment contract signed for the superstructure construction and management project. And the operation, exploitation, maintenance and re-delivery of a container terminal in Sokhna Port, which is implemented in addition to the implementation of the project to establish the superstructure and manage, operate, exploit, maintain and re-deliver the container terminal at Berth 100 in Dekheila.
The Prime Minister and his entourage listened to a presentation from Major General Mohamed Khalil, Director of the Port Development Project, about the current position of the station after the handover to Hutchison, where the rigging work has been completed, and the implementation of the superstructure work for the station is underway.
In the same context, the Minister of Transport stressed the implementation of the superstructure works at Berth 100 in parallel with the works currently being implemented, as is happening in the Sokhna station, for the speed of completion, indicating that the state is working on transforming the ports of Sokhna and Dekheila into pivotal ports, and increasing Egypt’s share of The global market for transit trade, stressing at the same time that these two projects are considered an important step towards implementing this logistical axis by exploiting the high-speed electric train to transport containers, linking with production and consumption areas, logistical centers and dry ports, through the logistical corridor and achieving the maximum benefit from the infrastructure of Egyptian ports and multiple transport. The means include roads, railways, and river transport, and using the two stations as gateways to provide integrated supply chains to serve global trade.
He added that the project to establish the superstructure, manage, operate, exploit, maintain, and redeliver a container terminal at Sokhna Port comes within the framework of the comprehensive plan to complete the development of Sokhna Port, which is currently being implemented, to become the largest pivotal port on the Red Sea. The general location of the port was planned to match the most modern international ports, in order to serve the movement of regional and international trade.
The Minister pointed out that this cooperation with the largest global alliance in the field of managing and operating shipping lines and international container terminals comes within the framework of the comprehensive plan of the Ministry of Transport to form strategic partnerships with the largest companies managing and operating international container terminals and shipping lines. To ensure the arrival and frequency of the largest possible number of international ships at Egyptian ports, double the ports’ operating capacity, and expand transit trade.
The ongoing development work in the port was reviewed, as the Prime Minister followed up on the implementation rates of the works and the progress of the internal road projects and drying basins, as well as the new railway line inside the port, as well as the extension works of a number of basins and their general plan, as well as the land use plan around them, in addition to the work Trough drying.
The port development project manager explained that the total area of the port is 25 km2, adding that the work being carried out includes the construction of 5 new docks and the construction of berths 18 km long and 18 m deep, bringing the total length of berths in the port to 23 km. Trading yards are also being constructed with an area of 9.2 km2, bringing the total number of yards to 11.2 km. km2, in addition to logistics areas with an area of 5.2 km2. Railway lines with a length of 17 km are also being constructed, bringing the total railway lines in the port to 22 km connected to the Sokhna/El Alamein/Marsa Matrouh high-speed electric train.
The project director added that a network of internal roads with a length of 17 km, with concrete paving, 3 lanes/direction, is also being constructed to connect the docks and the port as a whole, which will contribute to eliminating any future crowding inside the port, in addition to constructing breakwaters 3,270 meters long.
It should be noted that the percentage of dry excavation works reached 91%, as 100% of the basins have been completed and work is underway in the trading yards, while the percentage of dredging works reached 54% (the total amount of dredging is 70 million cubic meters, and 17 million cubic meters were carried out by Drying, in addition to 20.8 million cubic meters through dredging works. The percentage of implementation of railway works reached 72%, and the docks reached 93.85%, in addition to the port breakwaters, which reached 99%, and internal roads, 72%.
