DP World has secured a 10-year extension to its concession at Angola’s Port of Luanda, committing a further US$90 million to expand the terminal and more than double its original capacity target. The extension will keep DP World in charge of the Luanda Multipurpose Terminal until 2051 and forms part of an expansion programme designed to boost the facility’s capacity to approximately 1.2 million TEU a year.
The additional investment, to be made over the next two years, will see the terminal’s quay extended by 222 metres and its operational footprint expanded by about 10 hectares. DP World will also install three additional ship-to-shore cranes and 12 semi-automated rubber-tyred gantry cranes.
Once the expansion is completed, the terminal will be capable of handling two Post-Panamax vessels simultaneously. The operator said the new infrastructure will enable the terminal to handle growing trade volumes while improving its ability to accommodate larger vessels and strengthen Angola’s connections to international markets.
The latest commitment takes DP World’s total investment in Angola since it began operating the Luanda Multipurpose Terminal in 2021 to more than US$350 million. Container volumes at the terminal have also surged under DP World’s management, rising from about 177,000 TEU in 2021 to more than 350,000 TEU annually, according to the operator.
The latest expansion represents a significant increase on the ambitions set when DP World secured the original 20-year concession in January 2021. That agreement envisaged an investment of about US$190 million in infrastructure, equipment and technology, with a target of raising annual container capacity to around 700,000 TEU.
The new programme will take the terminal’s planned capacity to roughly 1.2 million TEU, putting it well above the level originally envisaged and positioning Luanda to handle substantially larger trade flows. DP World said the extended concession and investment would reinforce Angola’s position as a regional trade gateway and improve connectivity between the country and global markets.