Petrochem Middle East has signed a 30-year lease for land at Jebel Ali Port in the UAE, with port operator DP World, UAE Region, to build a new chemical terminal.
The terminal is expected to cost US$80-90 million and will be constructed on Quay 7, next to Jebel Ali’s dedicated chemical handling berth. Petrochem plans to build 24-30 stainless steel storage tanks, both large and small, with a total capacity of 40,000 m3. The terminal will also have distillation and processing units, a day tank farm, tanker and truck loading facility, nitrogen generation plant and automatic drum filling machines.
The terminal will be Petrochem’s second distribution and storage terminal in Jebel Ali and will be completed by Q3 2023. It will supply chemical raw materials to industry in the UAE. Jebel Ali Port hosts more than 500 petrochemical companies employing in excess of 6,500 people, in a cluster covering 4 million m2.
The lease agreement was signed by Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group chairman and CEO of DP World, and Yogesh Mehta, CEO of Petrochem Middle East, in the presence of Abdulla Bin Damithan, CEO & Managing Director, DP World – UAE Region and Jafza.
‘Since our inception in Jafza, we have had the privilege of having an ideal business environment that has truly added to our growth figures. Today, our annual turnover is over AED 2.5 billion and with the new project, we are expecting short term and long-term gains of about 10-15 per cent of our investment. Our existing state-of-the-art Jebel Ali terminal has helped us strengthen the portfolios of our clients, while helping us offer prompt logistics services and specially blended quality products,’ says Mehta, adding: ‘We owe part of our success to Jafza as it has helped us position ourselves as the largest independent chemical distributor in the Middle East and the 11th largest in the world.’
