BRUSSELS: DP World will take full control of the planned container terminal at Liège Port in Belgium as it strengthens its stake in the transport arteries of northern Europe.
The Dubai-based company said that it would take over the shares owned by Euroports in Trilogiport, the facility.
The container terminal will cover 100 hectares along the Albert Canal, a small and shallow waterway located in northeastern Belgium.
For DP World, involvement in the project is a logical step in its expansion in the Benelux [Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg] and a way of strengthening its presence on the Albert Canal,” the ports operator said.
Since 2011, DP World has been operating a terminal in Grobbendonk, in the province of Antwerp in Belgium.
The operation of two terminals, one at each end of the canal, will create synergies, DP World said. The new project is expected to be completed next year and will create more than 1000 jobs.
DP World remains an active player in developed markets such as Europe, where economic growth has recently re-emerged after the euro-zone crisis. It holds port operations in Belgium, France, Germany, Romania and Spain. It is close to launching operations in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Last November it began work at London Gateway, which will have a capacity of 3.5 million containers per year when fully developed.
DP World supports our strategy to connect Antwerp and Rotterdam to Germany, the Netherlands and France via Liège,” said Louis Bertrand, the director general of the Liège Port Authority.
DP World said last month that it was aiming to outperform average annual market growth this year after reporting a 9.3 per cent rise in throughput in the first half of the year. Gross container volumes that DP World handled rose to 29.4 million units during the period.
