Tunisia to expand largest port

04 November 2015

Expansion plans include adding two new quays

  • Congestion at the port began in 2010
  • Electronic container management system also planned

Tunisia plans to expand its largest commercial port in Rades by building two new quays that would bring the total to nine.

Deterioration a factor

A Ministerial Council meeting held on 2 November agreed that an expansion of the Rades port is required to address the deterioration in the quality of the port’s services due to “over-exploitation of platforms and equipment.” This is also in line with a broad review of their 2020 strategic development strategy for Tunisia’s ports sector, according to a local media report.

Expansion plan

The initial plan is to expand the port:

  • to accommodate up to 600,000 containers as well as
  • to pursue compliance with international standards by adopting an electronic container management system, among others.

The Rades port is understood to have been experiencing major congestion since 2010. This has resulted in long waiting period for ships calling at the port, as well as in very slow loading and unloading process for containers and trailers.

Inevitably this has also slowed down the process of granting import authorisations for goods transported through the port.

The Office de La Marine Marchande et des Ports (OMMP) runs the port of Rades.

As of 2014 the port is equipped with:

  • five pneumatic cranes,
  • 22 rubber tyred gantries,
  • 10 reach stackers,
  • 46 Ro-Ro trucks and
  • two trailers.

The seven existing quays have a total length of 675 metres and have a draft of 9 – 9.15 metres.

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