Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC invests in Libyan port of Misrata

Italian-Swiss MSC invests in the port of Misrata Keystone-SDA

Libyan authorities have announced a strategic partnership deal worth $3 billion with a Qatari fund and Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC’s subsidiary to develop Misrata port. An agreement was signed on Sunday.

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According to a press release from Misrata Free Zone Authority (MFZ), the partnership agreement provides for investments of $2.7 billion in the modernisation and expansion of the large port in western Libya.

The port of Misrata is the country’s most important non-oil terminal and handles around 60-65% of container traffic. The aim is to increase the port’s handling capacity to four million containers per year.

According to the Libyan Prime Minister’s office, 8,400 direct and 62,000 indirect jobs are to be created. Annual operating revenues are expected to total $600 million.

First public-private infrastructure project

The agreement was signed in Misrata in the presence of Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani.

The MFZ oversees “the country’s first and largest free zone”, which was created in 2000 on an area of 2,576 hectares and can be expanded to up to 20,000 hectares. In addition to MFZ, the Qatari fund Maha Capital Partners and the port operator Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) of the shipping giant MSC are involved in the modernisation project.

This is the first major public-private infrastructure project outside of the energy sector in Libya. The aim is to “transform the port of Misrata into a modern, efficient and high-capacity infrastructure”, the companies said in a joint statement.

Translated from German by AI/sb

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