The port will occupy a site of about 140 hectares, with a quay wall length of 1,400 metres, and will have annual capacity of 2.2 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Completion is due in 2011.

DP World has also begun construction of a $230 million container terminal in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, in joint venture with state-owned Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company. The terminal will have capacity of 1.5 million TEUs and cover an area of about 40 hectares, with a 950-metre quay wall. The facility will be completed in phases, with the first two berths becoming operational in 2008.

It is part of a wider Asian expansion by the Dubai-based company, part of Dubai World, which recently announced plans to invest up to $30,000 million in projects in Pakistan (MEED 9:6:06).