Egypt Threatens DP World with Port Project Withdrawal

The government has threatened to withdraw a contract granting DP World the right to run a containers depot at Ain Sokhna port due to the company's failure to implement investments stated in its contract with the Egyptian government since it bought the terminal.

An admonition sent by the Red Sea Ports Authority to the company's office at Ain Sokhna last month requested the company to set a timetable for officially signing contracts with the government and carry out the investments and works agreed upon in the contracts, including works at a containers' terminal and a logistics zone.

Sources at the maritime transport industry said the government failed in 2008 to sign the contracts with the company within two months from acquiring the terminal as required.

The authority had given the company a grace period to 2010 to arrange its files and fulfill its obligations, but surprisingly, the company won an extension of three years.

The same sources revealed that former transport minister Ibrahim al-Demeiry had threatened DP World with revoking the contract.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb had held a meeting in which it was agreed that DP World would lay a down a plan to start the investments with the beginning of 2015.

The company, on its part, blamed the delay on security instability in Egypt over the past years and recurrent labor strikes at the port.

in Sokhna, near the southern end of the Suez Canal, is Cairo's main port for cargo from the Far East.

DP World signed an agreement with former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in October 2007 that granted the company exclusive rights to run the port until 2032.

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