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The Sharjah-headquartered international port operator Gulftainer has announced the commercial opening of its new Canaveral Cargo Terminal at Port Canaveral in Florida, USA. GT USA, Gulftainer’s US business, signed a 35-year agreement with Port Canaveral last year to manage the port’s new container and multipurpose sea cargo terminal.
Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States, south of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center. The new Canaveral Cargo Terminal opens with a 20 acre state-of-the-art facility consisting of two berths, two cranes and an initial capacity of 200,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). The port provides excellent connections to Florida’s commercial centres and distribution hubs and is able to turn around cargo landed at Port Canaveral to the Orlando area within one hour.
Gulftainer is investing US$100 million in infrastructure and equipment in the new container terminal and ambitious plans to triple its capacity to 750,000 TEUs. The port operator expects to contribute more than US$630 million to the local economy, creating 2,000 direct and indirect jobs when fully developed. GT USA has established its headquarters at the Canaveral Port Authority offices.
The opening of new terminal welcomed the maiden call of the ‘CMA CGM Jamaica’, a 264-metre container vessel with a capacity of 4,298 TEUs that berthed at the port, as the deepest vessel to ever call at Canaveral in its 60 year history, before resuming her voyage across the Atlantic and to Europe. A long-time business partner of Gulftainer , CMA CGM is one of the world’s leading shipping companies and is associated with Gulftainer at several locations around the world. Earlier this month, CMA CGM’s largest container vessel visited Gulftainer’s Khorfakkan Container Terminal in Sharjah, the ‘CMA CGM Kerguelen,’ with a total capacity of 17,722 TEUs.
The Port Canaveral agreement marks Gulftainer’s expansion into the United States and a significant milestone for the company. Gulftainer also has port management contracts in Brazil, Russia and the Middle East, with a corporate presence across Africa, Europe and Asia.
Source: Gulftainer
