DUBAI: Emirati container terminal operator Gulftainer Co. Ltd. will open its first U.S. terminal Friday at Port Canaveral, Fla., seeking its first foothold in a crowded market for container traffic that includes the nearby ports of Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay.
With two gantry cranes and 20 acres of container storage space, Gulftainer estimates that terminal could handle up to 200,000 TEUs—or the equivalent of 200,000 20-foot-long shipping containers—each year. The Gulftainer terminal, which has leased the land at Port Canaveral for 35 years, will mark the start of the first significant containerized cargo operation at Port Canaveral, which is known primarily as a cruise ship terminal now.
Peter Richards, Gulftainer’s managing director, said the company hopes to capitalize on Central Florida’s growing role as a logistics hub, with inland warehouses, rail access to the Northeast and Midwest and land for infrastructure development.
“One of the main attractions looking at Canaveral in the first place was that we could expand as we grew,” Mr. Richards said.
