13 quarries to provide construction materials for Algeria’s new deep-water El Hamdania port

Cherchell, Algeria (Ports Europe) May 26, 2021 – A high-level meeting has moved forward the project for the construction of Algeria’s new commercial Mediterranean port of El Hamdania. This is going to be the first Algerian deep-water port and the country’s largest, as well as only the second deep-water port in Africa. The port is expected to become operational in four years and fully completed in seven years. El Hamdania is being positioned to become a hub that could potentially compete with the Spanish ports of Valencia and Barcelona. Located 70 km from the country’s capital Algiers, between the cities of Cherchell in the province of Tipaza and Tenes in the province of Chlef), the Port of El Hamdania and the adjacent future two industrial zones covering jointly 2,000 hectares of land is seen by the government as an answer to Morocco’s Tangir-Med deep-water port. Tanger Med has a capacity of over 9 million TEUs per year and is one of the largest container ports in the Mediterranean Sea. As part of the launch of works on the port of El-Hamdania, the meeting organised by Labiba Winaz (the governor of Ain Temouchent, Western Algeria) involved the Director General of the National Agency for the realization of the port; Director General of the National Agency for Mining Activities; representatives of the agency in charge of the realization, the Sino-Algerian Complex; executives involved in this project. Raw materials from local quarries A key topic of discussions was the selection of quarries that will provide the project with construction materials. A quarry exploration coordination and monitoring committee has been set up. The project's needs for construction materials from the quarries until 2028 are estimated at 27.8 million m³, plus additional 2 million m³ for related projects. Nine new quarries will be open up specifically for the port project in addition to the operation of four other previously exploited quarries. Five delivery routes will be opened to supply the project with construction materials from the quarries, including one sea route. Three locations were identified for housing the workers to be involved in the project. 250 families are to be relocated from the site where the new port is being built. The future port will have 23 terminals with a processing capacity of 6.5 million containers (TEUs) per year or 25.7 million tonnes of goods per year. It will be able to accommodate vessels up to 240,000 tonnes. According to Algeria’s Public Works Department, El Hamdania port will be one of the top 30 ports in the world by containers handled when completed. It is also expected to be the biggest ever infrastructure project in Algeria at a cost of $3.3 billion. Financing of the project is expected with a long-term loan from Algeria’s National Investment Fund (FNI) and a loan from the Chinese Exim Bank. Efforts to restart the construction of the deep-water Port of El Hamdania represent a new business opportunity in the port development and equipment sectors with procurement opportunities for computer systems and software; design and planning services; dredging; security systems, services and technology; terminal technologies and systems; vessel traffic information systems. Barriers to entry in the Algerian (outdated, Soviet-era style) market include investment laws that require Algerian partners to hold a 51% project stake and high customs duties. Algerian authorities are in the process of releasing land for the new port; for the roads that will link the El-Hamdania port to the East-West highway, which is about 35 km from the port; for a link to Algeria's main railway lines that are about 24 km from the port. Chinese involvement The mega port will be constructed by an Algerian registered consortium composed of the local Public Port Services Group, China State Construction Corporation (CSCEC), which is expected to work together China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and controls 65% of the consortium shares, and Algerian companies Cosider with 20%, Meditram with 10% and the National Society of Public Works with 5%. CSCEC and CHEC were earlier reported to have a joint 49% stake in the operating company, with the Algerian Port Authority holding 51% in the new port, but it seems that the Chinese stake has been increased because of Chinese financing. In exchange for Chinese investment, the agreement has handed port’s operations to the Chinese for the first 25 years. Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), which is 61% owned the government of the city of Shanghai, is the planned operator of the port. The port will cover an area of 1,000 hectares and will have a logistics complex of 2,000 hectares, the shipping and ports director of the Algerian Transport Ministry, Mohamed Ibn Boushaki, said. Algerian government expects the annual cargo traffic of the future El Hamdania port to reach 35 million tonnes by 2050. China’s state-owned shipping line, COSCO Shipping, suggested in 2017 that it could make El Hamdania its hub in the western Mediterranean Sea. A new route to Africa El Hamdania will seek to attract transhipment business serving West Africa. The government’s strategic objective for the port is to be used by land-locked African countries. The highway between the port and the southern border of Algeria is to be upgraded, enabling containers to be transported faster to many parts of the land-locked West Africa. The port will connect Algeria with Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Africa Algeria wants to regain its place in the maritime sector at the Mediterranean and African level. However, so far, the majority of its ports are embedded in urban centers, which limits any possibility of infrastructure expansion. The political turmoil in Algeria has hampered efforts to implement mega-projects to which the Algerian government has assigned high priority since 2016 and the plans for which were approved in 2017. Work on the project was suspended in April 2019 - at the start of the Hirak protests. In July 2020, following the change in government the decision was taken to try to relaunch the project. In addition to funding issues (expected to be resolved with the help of Chinese banks), the project faces opposition from local authorities, who fear construction work could threaten the seaside ecosystem as well as the region’s rich archaeological sites. The selection of the El Hamdania site, east of Cherchell, for the new port was based on studies showing that this area has a draft of over 20 meters, in addition to a wide bay providing natural protection. South Korea’s Yuhill-Yooshin and Algeria’s Laboratoire des études maritimes (LEM) completed a detailed plan for the new port in December 2017. More information about the El Hamdania project in Ports Europe story Construction of Algeria’s new El Hamdania mega port is expected to start in May Copyright (C) Ports Europe. All Rights Reserved. 2021.

13 quarries to provide construction materials for Algeria’s new deep-water El Hamdania port

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13 quarries to provide construction materials for Algeria’s new deep-water El Hamdania port

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