Port of Djibouti and Doraleh

At a glance

• Who runs it: the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority (DPFZA), which reports to the presidency and also oversees the free zones (Wikipedia, Port of Djibouti; DPFZA).
• Traffic: an estimated 2,500 ships call each year (same Wikipedia article).
• Ethiopia: about 70% of the port's cargo goes to or from Ethiopia, which is over 95% of landlocked Ethiopia's foreign trade (same source).
• Ranking: in January 2021 the World Bank and IHS Markit's Container Port Performance Index ranked it the best container port in Africa and 61st in the world, with ships spending a median of under one day in port (Hellenic Shipping News).
• Website: portdedjibouti.com.

How the port grew

Djibouti's sheltered coast gave Ethiopia its closest outlet to the sea. The French-built railway from Addis Ababa, started in 1897 and finished in 1917, made the port (Wikipedia; Port de Djibouti, history); see Ethio-Djibouti Railways. Between 1948 and 1957 four deep-water quays were built and the channels dredged, with new warehouses, oil storage, power, water and rail sidings. In 1952 the French company Pétroles de Somalie (later Total) bunkered its first ship, and Mobil arrived in 1956. Bunkering, the sale of ship fuel, quadrupled in ten years to a peak of 1.8 million tonnes in 1965. The first modern container terminal opened in February 1985 (same sources). Djibouti's civil war of 1991 to 1994 hit the economy, and by the early 2000s the old railway had decayed.

Doraleh, Damerjog and the Chinese railway

• Doraleh: work on the Doraleh Multipurpose Port began in 2013; it relieves the old port and adds 29 million tonnes of capacity a year (Wikipedia).
• Damerjog: construction began in September 2013, financed by China Merchants Group and the government and built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. It handles livestock, liquid bulk and ship repair (Zawya).
• Railway: the Chinese-built, electrified Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway, built 2011–2016, ends at Doraleh. Wikipedia notes that power problems have kept it below expectations, so most Ethiopian cargo still comes by road (Wikipedia).

The DP World dispute

Dubai's DP World ran the Doraleh Container Terminal under a concession. In February 2018 Djibouti revoked the concession by presidential decree under a new law allowing it to end contracts for "strategic infrastructure", and transferred the assets (Wikipedia; Financial Times). The London Court of International Arbitration ruled in 2020 that the seizure was illegal; an earlier award ordered Djibouti to pay $533 million. DP World says the government has ignored six rulings in its favour, and in July 2021 a seventh found that the state company PDSA had breached the joint-venture agreement (Maritime Executive; AllAfrica, July 2021). Djibouti rejected the 2020 ruling and handed a stake in the port to China Merchants Ports Holdings (Wikipedia). DP World is also the operator at Berbera in Somaliland.

Foreign bases around the port

Wikipedia reports that Djibouti earns about $125 million a year in rent from US, Chinese, French, Japanese and Italian bases (Wikipedia; Quartz). China opened its naval support base next to Doraleh in 2017, its first military base abroad (Reuters, July 2017). The US base, Camp Lemonnier, is at the airport; see Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport.

Related

• Somalia's seaports
• Airports and airstrips of Djibouti
• Somalis in Djibouti