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Jebel Ali Container T4 unlikely to open until next year, report says

Jebel Ali Container T4 unlikely to open until next year, report says
Dubai's giant new Container Terminal 4 at Jebel Ali is rapidly taking shape, but is unlikely to launch until 2018, according to Alphaliner. 

The weekly newsletter detailed numerous shipments of cargo handling equipment have arrived at the new facility over the past few months

However, the terminal's developer, owner and future operator, DP World, has not publicly announced a formal launch date yet. Without detailing a more precise timeline, earlier statements indicate that the terminal is now slated to come on stream in 2018.

Alphaliner reports that DP World is taking a deliberately slow approach to avoid dumping capacity into a contracted market

In 2016, Dubai handled a container volume of 14.77 mteu, down 5.3% from 2015.

In the DP World annual report for 2016, group chairman and ceo Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said that in the current market environment, it made no sense for port capacity to be under-utilised.

“We only want to add capacity when there is a demand for it. So, in the softer economic conditions we witnessed in 2016, we have decided to postpone some of the planned capacity additions for Terminals 3 and 4 at Jebel Ali Port,” he added. In August last year the terminal operator said it was slowing down the construction of T4.