Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) has awarded South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction the estimated $390m contract to build the container terminal at Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone (KPIZ) in Taweelah.

The contract also involves building port operations buildings, finishing the earthworks for the terminal area, setting up mooring systems and installing utilities such as electricity supply cables, substations and water pipes. The container terminal is offshore and construction is expected to be finished in 2012.

Hyundai’s contract is the third major contract to be awarded at the port in the last two months.

Earlier in August, ADPC issued a letter of intent to Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) for an estimated AED485m ($132m) infrastructure contract at KPIZ (MEED 26:8:10). The contract covers the northern area of the port and involves the construction of one road bridge, two rail bridges and other general infrastructure such as culverts, storm water drainage, sewerage, sub stations and pumping stations.

In July, a joint venture of Germany’s Ed Zueblin and the local Al-Jaber Group won an estimated AED1bn infrastructure contract at KPIZ. The contract involves civil and structural building works together with a road linking the offshore port to the mainland and other service roads. The buildings include a terminal operations centre.

ADPC expects the work to be completed in August 2012.

The first phase of the port will be able to accommodate two million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and six million tonnes of general cargo. Four later phases will see this capacity rise to 22 million TEUs and 35 million tonnes of cargo by 2028.

A consortium of Geneva-registered Archirodon Construction, Boskalis Westminster Middle East of the Netherlands and Hyundai Engineering & Construction was awarded the AED5.5bn contract for the port’s marine works in 2007.

US-based Bechtel was appointed as the project’s programme manager in 2006.