Dubai-headquartered DP World has secured a 50-year concession worth about $1bn to develop and maintain a greenfield multi-purpose port in Ecuador.

Phase 1 of the project is valued at $500m. It entails:

• Land purchase
• Dredging of a new access channel
• 20-kilometre access road
• 400-metre berth equipped to handle containers and other cargo

Construction work on the road and berths is expected to last 24 months and could begin within nine months. The port is planned to have a capacity of 750,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

The port is located in Ecuador’s Posorja, to the south of the country and some 65 kilometres off the main city of Guayaquil.

Beyond phase 1 and during the agreed concession period, it is estimated the total investment will reach in excess of $1bn, creating close to 1,000 jobs during operations.

The port will focus on containers with the capability to handle other types of cargo and will be implemented with DP World’s local partners, Consorcio Nobis and Grupo Vilaseca, DP World said in a statement.

As a deep-water port, Posorja will enable access to a 15-metre draft. The existing ports have a draft of 9.75 metres. It will also greatly relieve pressure on the existing terminals in Guayaquil, which are understood to be approaching their throughput limits.

Long-term expansion potential could see the construction of 2,000 metres of berth and more than 2 million square metres of terminal area, DP World said.