The 2 new cranes towering over a huge cargo ship are tall enough to reach even the highest of the containers that are stacked up 5 on top of each other. Trucks are lined up on the newly built 400-meter (1,324-feet) quay of the deep-water Port of Berbera, in Somaliland, waiting for the containers to be offloaded.
Mohamed Atteye has been a shift manager at the Berbera terminal since year 2021, when the facility reopened after 2 years of refurbishment. The bearded man watches as the cranes gently move.
Not too long ago, unloading such a huge container ship was a dangerous task, he said, because dock workers had to use the ships' own cranes.
Atteye points out that turnover of cargo and containers at the port has substantially increased with the new equipment. 4 years ago, the team was only able to handle seven containers an hour. "Now we can do 30 per hour. So you can see the big difference, the big jump," he told DW.
Before its upgrade, Berbera Port could handle only about 150,000 standard 20-feet containers a year. Current capacity is about four times as many, and there are plans to expand that further to about 13 times the cargo handled in the past.
Free Trade Zone Aims To Attract Investments, Jobs
Berbera Port's expansion was financed by DP World, a multinational logistics company based in Dubai. Specializing in cargo logistics, port operations, maritime services and free trade zones, the company has commercial interests in 34 countries, among them 12 in Africa and the Middle East.
In exchange for its $442 million investment, DP World has won a 30-year concession with an automatic 10-year extension to manage the port.
Following the 1st phase of expansion, a 2nd phase is currently under construction, which includes extending the new quay to 1,000 meters and adding another 7 gantry cranes. In addition, the company has set up what it calls the Berbera Economic Zone a free trade zone aimed at attracting investments and jobs in a range of industries.
Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has acted as a de facto independent state since then, although it is not internationally recognized. The deal with DP World could create fresh momentum for the breakaway region's drive toward recognition.