Abu Dhabi Ports has awarded China's Cosco Shipping Ports Ltd a contract to build a new Container Freight Station (CFS) in Abu Dhabi, which will be the region's largest, officials said on Sunday. The freight station will provide Abu Dhabi with a state-of-art facility offering various services and easy connectivity with the container terminals at Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Port.
In 2016, China's Cosco Shipping Ports won a 35-year concession to build and operate a new container terminal at the same port in the United Arab Emirates capital. Cosco at the time said it planned to invest over $700 million there. This year in July, Abu Dhabi attracted five Chinese companies to build diverse industries in its industrial zone with an initial investment of $300 million.
The new freight station will comprise an area of 275,000 square metres with plans for adding another 150,000 sqm at a later stage. It is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2019, the same time when the new container terminal at Khalifa Port opens. "This will boost volumes coming and going out of Khalifa Port and boost the confidence of investors in the Khalifa Industrial Zone," Mohamed Juma al-Shamsi, chief executive, Abu Dhabi Ports told reporters after the start of construction of the new container terminal at Khalifa Port.
Khalifa Port's terminal one currently has capacity of 2.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). Cosco will build the second terminal with capacity of 2.4 million TEUs and expand it further by 1.1 million TEUs.
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