APM Terminals’ Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT) has reinforced its commitment to Jordan’s 2025 vision, a 10-year blueprint for economic and social development, on the anniversary marking its tenth year of operating the facility.
The global terminal operator has celebrated the occasion by releasing a video (above) that reviews ACT’s progress over the last decade.
In 2014, the Jordanian government issued a report that recognised ACT as model private-public partnership based on its operations, safety, quality of service, and its wider social and economic impact.
The venture is a part of King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein’s 2025 vision to turn Jordan into a regional logistics cluster.
ACT has been able to draw directly from APM Terminals’ standards and global best practices.
This has led ACT to reach an employee nationalization rate of 99.5% and reinvesting 97% of all revenue generated since 2006 into the local economy.
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Feras Altaweil, ACT’s Head of HSSE, said: “Exceeding the highest global safety standards earned us the prestigious APM Terminals’ Global Safety Award in 2015.
“In 2016, for the third time, the terminal received the Jordanian National Workplace Health and Safety Award from Jordan Social Security.”
In the 1980s, the port emerged as the third-largest terminal in the Red Sea.
In 2003, congestion at the port was becoming a major obstacle for Jordanian trade, costing the economy an estimated US$ 120 million per year.
However, the leadership of King Abdullah II led to the formation of the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) to manage the terminal.
ADC put the terminal out to tender for a two-year period to develop Aqaba’s handling capabilities.
APM Terminals won the tender and began operating the terminal in 2004.
Within a year, a new digital upgrade of the terminal eliminated berthing delays, half dwell-times and led to shipping lines removing their congestion surcharges.
In 2006, APM Terminals signed a 25-year concession agreement with ADC, which, according to Steven Yoogalingam, CEO of ACT was, “the start of a remarkable private-public partnership success story in Jordan”.
He said: “Our employees’ continuous hard work under APM Terminals’ progressive management has enabled ACT to become a driver of social and economic development in Aqaba.
“It proudly illustrates Jordan’s capacity to attract successful local and foreign investors.
“As a strategic partner of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with an established track-record spanning more than 10 years, APM Terminals extends its ongoing support to Jordan’s 2025 vision, through continuous investment in Jordan’s logistics and transportation infrastructure.”
