Basra Gateway Terminal, the Iraqi subsidiary of Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Incorporated (ICTSI), expects berths 25 and 26 at Umm Qasr Port to enter commercial operation by the end of 2019.

MEED understands a local contracting firm began work on the $120m development of the two berths earlier this year.

The addition of two operating berths will take the terminal’s capacity from 650,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 1.3 million TEUs, according to Phillip Marsham, CEO, Basra Gateway Terminal.

Once work is completed, the container terminal will accommodate container vessels that carry up to 9,000 TEUs.

It is understood the terminal could only previously accommodate smaller vessels with capacities between 5,000 and 6,000 TEUs.

According to Marsham, a deepwater container terminal offers customers the option to send bigger vessels directly to Basra, in addition to having very large vessels dock at Jebel Ali Port in Dubai and using smaller feeder ships to transport containers from there to Umm Qasr Port.

ICTSI signed a 26-year concession agreement for the operation and development of berths 19, 20, 21, 25, 26 and 27 at Umm Qasr Port in 2014.

Berths 20, 25, 26 and 27 comprise the container terminal, berth 19 is dedicated to bulk and projects cargo and berth 21 to roll-on/roll-off (roro) ships.

The initial $130m development of berth 25 was completed in 2017.