Gulftainer wins 50-year concession for US port

SHARJAH / WAM

Gulftainer, a privately-owned independent port operator and logistics company based in Sharjah, has finalised a 50-year concession with the State of Delaware in the USA to operate and develop the Port of Wilmington, significantly expanding the company’s global footprint and reach.
The agreement, signed by Gulftainer’s subsidiary GT USA, will see an expected investment of up to $600 million in the port to upgrade and expand the terminal and to turn it into one of the largest facilities of its kind on the Eastern Seaboard.
The port deal represents the largest operation ever run by a UAE company in the US, as well as the largest investment ever by a private UAE company in the country.
The 50-year concession follows a year of negotiations and a thorough evaluation of Gulftainer’s capabilities globally,
including in USA, where it currently operates Canaveral Cargo Terminal in Port Canaveral, Florida and provides services to the US Armed Forces as well as the US Space Industry. The Delaware concession agreement completes a preliminary pact between Gulftainer and Delaware state, as well as the completion of a formal review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in US, granting Gulftainer exclusive rights to manage the Port.
Gulftainer plans to invest up to $600 million in the port, including $400 million on a new 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), container
facility at DuPont’s former Edgemoor site, which was acquired by the Diamond State Port Corporation in 2016.
In recent years total bilateral trade between the UAE and US has grown from approximately $5 billion in 2004 to over $24 billion in 2017.
Commenting on the agreement, Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to US said, “The UAE and US have a strong, vibrant investment relationship that delivers meaningful and measur- -able benefits to businesses, and creates jobs in both countries.”