Ports and terminals operator Gulftainer has extended its concession agreements with the Sharjah Ports, Customs, and Free Zones Authority for a further 35 years.
The concession agreement includes the Northern Emirates’ key trade gateways at Sharjah Container Terminal and Khorfakkan Container Terminal.
The extended agreements allow Gulftainer to manage, operate, and further develop the two terminals throughout this century. The Sharjah Container Terminal is the first container terminal in the Middle East and has been the trade enabler not only for the Emirate of Sharjah but also for the Northern Emirates and the whole UAE, handling container, bulk, ro-ro and general cargo.
The Khorfakkan Container Terminal on the other hand is one of the world’s most productive ports, strategically located outside the Straits of Hormuz on Sharjah’s Indian Ocean coast serving the major east-west shipping routes and can handle the world’s largest container vessels and fully equipped to handle general cargoes for the UAE market and the wider GCC region.
Gulftainer signed the original concession agreements for operating and managing the container terminal at Port Khalid in 1976 and the container terminal at Port Khorfakkan in 1986.