(Yicai Global) Dec. 11 -- A unit of China's largest shipping company has opened a new container terminal in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi that the firm plans to develop into a hub for international container liners in the Upper Persian Gulf.

Shanghai-based China COSCO Shipping inaugurated the Khalifa Port Container Terminal 2 yesterday, China's state news agency Xinhua reported. Officials from both countries attended the opening ceremony where they gave speeches, it added.

The port is a major hub for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Xinhua said. The new terminal has a design capacity of 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent container units annually. Its handling capacity will reach 2.4 million TEUs a year, the report said.

The water depth of its berths is 18 meters, with a 1,200-meter berth frontage and adjacent land. The first 800m and the corresponding concession area have been completed and will go into immediate operation, and the remaining 400m and an extended concession area is expected to come into service in 2020. The entire concession, including the expanded one, is around 70 hectares with three berths.

The project is operated by a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Ports and COSCO Shipping Ports–Abu Dhabi, known as CSPL SPV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based COSCO Shipping Ports under COSCO Shipping. CSPL SPV has a controlling stake in the JV.

Khalifa Port Container Terminal 2 is the second overseas terminal COSCO Shipping Ports controls, public data shows.

The JV is entitled to a 35-year franchise of the container terminal and has the right to extend it by five years, per the concession agreement the parties signed in September 2016.

Editor: Ben Armour