Freight News, Sea

Hapag-Lloyd Venture Opens Damietta Terminal

[ February 19, 2026   //   Gary Burrows ]

Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, saw the arrival of the first vessel call at the new Damietta Alliance Container Terminals facility, at the Egyptian port.

The 13,117-TEU Essen Express, operated by Hapag-Lloyd, became the inaugural ship to berth at the Damietta Alliance Container Terminals, or DACT.

The terminal, located at Damietta Port on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, is designed primarily as a transshipment hub and is planned to reach an annual capacity of 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) after its final construction phase. About 80 percent of volumes are expected to be transshipment cargo, with the remainder serving Egyptian imports and exports, including the Cairo market, as well as regional trades in the Levant and Black Sea.

The facility spans about 93 hectares, with a quay length of 1,670 meters and water depth of 18 meters. Equipment includes 12 electric ship-to-shore cranes with 25-row outreach and 40 hybrid rubber-tired gantry cranes. The terminal also features six rail lanes, two of which are operational at launch.

DACT is operated by Damietta Alliance Container Terminals S.A.E., a joint venture led by Hapag-Lloyd Damietta GmbH, represented by Hanseatic Global Terminals, with a 39 percent stake. Other shareholders include EUROGATE and Contship Italia, each holding just under 30 percent, along with minority Egyptian partners.

Company officials said the terminal is expected to play a role in East Mediterranean trade flows and support global liner networks as operations ramp up through 2026.

Tags: Contship Italia, Damietta Alliance Container Terminals, EUROGATE, Hanseatic Global Terminals, Hapag-Lloyd