(Yicai Global) March 16 -- Cosco Shipping Ports, the Chinese operator of Greece's Port of Piraeus and the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, intends to buy a 25 percent stake in a new container terminal in Sokhna, Egypt, to improve trade links between China and Africa.

The global port operator signed an agreement with partners to invest in the Sokhna New Container Terminal, the Hong Kong-based firm said in a press release today. It already owns equity in another maritime transport hub in Egypt, the Suez Canal Container Terminal.

The terminal addition in Sokhna, located on the western coast of the Gulf of Suez, will be built by the Egyptian government and operated by firms including CSPL. The deal is valid for 30 years with a total investment of USD375 million. The throughput capacity will reach 1.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units, the company added.

The investment will help CSPL optimize its global layout and contribute to improving trade links between China and African countries, including Egypt. The Port of Sokhna, one of Egypt’s major ports, is located close to the Suez Canal Economic Zone, which should help the port to increase its competitiveness in the Red Sea region to become an important logistics hub in Africa, per the statement.

CSPL has a wide range of ports in its portfolio, including those of Ningbo, Xiamen, and Quanzhou. The firm managed 36 ports worldwide as of December 2022 with a total annual handling capacity of 122 million TEUs. The biggest shareholder of CSPL is Cosco Shipping Holdings, a unit of state-owned China Ocean Shipping.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi