China Merchants Port Holdings aims to strengthen its control on a container terminal in Djibouti, East Africa. The port operator will reset operations and infrastructure at Djibouti’s Doraleh Container Terminal, which is vital to China’s attempt to control seagoing trade lanes between Asia and Europe.
Namely, China Merchants Port Holdings will assert control of operations at Djibouti’s Doraleh Container Terminal, the Wall Street Journal reports, while China Civil Engineering Construction and China State Construction Engineering have established a multipurpose cargo facility next to handle cars, livestock, steel and other goods.
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However, Djibouti is the only one controlling the Doraleh terminal and has told the US that it does not plan to give control of its maritime assets to Chinese state port operators. Despite this statement, some US officials are worried that this stance will not last long.
In fact, China believes that Djibouti could be part of the Belt and Road Initiative, that includes ports in numerous countries, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Greece and Belgium.
With these ports, Chinese ships have priority handling and lower docking fees, enabling China’s carriers to have an advantage in delivering as much cargo as possible in a short time to Europe.
Djibouti is located at the entrance to the Red Sea, from which around 12% of all seaborne trade sails through, via the Suez Canal. Today, there are no other ports along the East Africa with the infrastructure to deal with cargo between ships.
The position of the country also makes it strategically important for countries wanting to influence the region.
