Libya’s East and West authorities have officially united for the construction of North Africa’s automated and largest deep-sea ports near the city of Susah in Libya. Specifically, the Port of Susah, a major international trans-shipment hub container port, will be a crossroad in North Africa for mainline cargo vessels traveling to and from Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal, as well as to and from the United States.
The port will not only serve containers, but also breakbulk, bulk, general cargo, and potentially oil and gas. It will include a logistics facility fully integrated with a Free Trade Zone and is expected to be operational in 2020.
The first phase of the port will include
- a quay of length of 1,350m, based on three berths, each 400 meters long
- a fully automated terminal that is capable of handling over 35 containers moves per hour with each crane
- initial provision of four container gantry cranes, each capable of multiple container lifts
- supporting yard space and handling equipment to ensure efficient operation.
In addition, phase two will acquire an extra berth to handle a diversity of cargo, among which, additional container traffic, depending on demand, and other cargo.
By 2022, the Port of Susah is expected to earn about $60 million in revenue, and according to expectations will double by the year 2040.
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The estimates are based on the fact that the port will be able to handle approximately 500.000 TEUs during its first year operations, which is during the first phase. In the meantime, the TEUs are expected to grow by three times during phase two and three.
Moreover, the collaboration is between the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), commonly known as the Unity Government, in the West in Tripoli and the House of Representatives Interim Government in the East in Tobruk, will cooperate on the billion-dollar Port of Susah project.
Yet, international investment firm, The Guidry Group, will develop the new port.
The firm was chosen amongst other nine international firms in 2015.
According to the Guidry Group’s statement, the Governments’ agreement on collaborating resulted from a three-year work and discussions between the Seaport Authority officials in the East and West.
Dr. Nasereldeen Mehna, a member of the House of Representatives stated that
The Port of Susah will help to grow our economy and create much needed employment opportunities for our nation’s people who are hungry for change.
Concluding, the port is the first-ever design-build-operate-transfer public and private-partnership infrastructure project in Libya. When the concession is over, the project will be transferred to Libya’s government.
