Gulftainer, a subsidiary of United Arab Emirates-based Crescent Enterprises entered a 35-year agreement with Port Canaveral on Monday to operate a container and cargo terminal being constructed at the port.
The deal will see an investment of up to $100 million in equipment and employees to operate the terminal, and marks expansion of Gulftainer’s business operations to a fifth continent as this is Gulftainer’s first deal with a North American company.
Thus, Port Canaveral, a renowned name in the cruise business, is about to enter a new chapter with the investment, which will help boost its bulk cargo business.
Namely, Gulftainer plans to increase the port’s shipping container business from a few hundred units per year to 700,000 TEUs per year, as explained by Badr Jafar, chief executive of Crescent Enterprises.
The move forms part of Gulftainer’s growth strategy, which as explained by Jafar, should see tripling of the company’s business volume worldwide by 2020, with more than 10,000 vessel calls each year handling a total of 18 million containers. The company wants to have stakes in 35 terminals across five continents by 2020, writes Florida Today.
According to port officials, the investment is expected to result in 2,000 jobs once operational, including 500 at the port.
“We’re well-positioned to reach well in through the Caribbean Islands, Latin America, South America, over to Africa, and pick up the global trade routes to northern Europe, into the Middle East and Asia ,” Port Canaveral Chief Executive John Walsh is quoted by Reuters as saying at the signing ceremony.
Peter Richards, managing director of the Gulftainer Group, said Gulftainer also was in talks with other U.S. ports, which he declined to identify.
Among the factors that proved crucial in the decision making process to opt for Port Canaveral , Richards referred to the port’s management, available space for expansion, channel depth and width characteristics, and geographic location in relation to cargo customers., along with a proposal to extend a railway line to the port.
The new cargo terminal should open for business later this year.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff, June 24, 2014, Image: Port Canaveral