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The government of Algeria has approved the construction of a new deep-water port at El Hamdania to be financed with loans from Chinese banks and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Plans for the facility were drawn up in December by Algeria’s Laboratoire des Etudes Maritimes (LEM) with South Korea’s Yooshin engineering corporation. 

The port will be developed by China Harbour Engineering Company and China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which will hold a 49% stake in the project, and the Algerian Port Authority, which will have the remaining 51% stake.

The port will be located close to the town of Cherchell, in Tipaza province, located 70 km west of Algiers. This is a natural sheltered bay and offers draught of up to 20m. El Hamdania is also a designated industrial development centre, with existing connections to the national highway network and to a local power station. 

El Hamdania is to be developed in two phases with eventual annual handling capacity of 6.3 million TEU per year, spread over 23 berths. This would rank it second in Africa, after Tanger Med’s 9 million TEU per year.

The total cost of the project is expected to be around US$3.3 billion.

Construction works for the project are set to begin in March 2017, with the first berths scheduled to be completed in 2021.

The new facilities are set to be financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) with a US$900m loan to be repaid in 20 years with a five-year grace, with additional financing expected to be provided by a consortium of Chinese banks.

When operational the facility is expected to compete with Morocco’s Tanger Med port and southern European ports, such as Algeciras in Spain and Gioia Tauro in Italy.

A concurrent project to upgrade a highway linking El Hamdania to Algeria’s southern border would also enable the port to complete with West African ports to serve landlocked countries in the sub-region.