The Italian-Swiss shipping company MSC wants to extensively modernize and expand the port of Misrata in Libya. An agreement to this effect has now been signed.
According to the Free Zone Authority of Misrata (MFZ), the partnership agreement provides for investments of $2.7 billion. The aim is to increase the handling capacity of the country’s most important non-oil-based port to up to four million containers per year. The port of Misrata currently handles around 60 to 65% of Libya’s container traffic.
According to the Libyan Prime Minister’s office, the project is expected to create around 8400 direct jobs and around 62,000 indirect jobs. The annual operating income is estimated at around 600 million dollars in the long term.
The agreement was signed in Misrata in the presence of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani.
In addition to MFZ, the Qatari fund Maha Capital Partners and the MSC terminal subsidiary Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) are involved in the project. The MFZ oversees Libya’s largest free zone, which was established in 2000 on an area of 2576 hectares and can be expanded to up to 20,000 hectares.
According to the companies involved, this is the first major public-private infrastructure project outside the energy sector in Libya. The aim is to transform the port of Misrata into a modern, efficient and high-capacity port infrastructure.
