World terminal operator DP World has taken one other step towards returning to U.S. port operations twenty years after a proposed takeover of terminals at a number of main American ports raised issues over nationwide safety.
The Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, has signed a lease choice settlement with Dubai-based DP World to develop a container terminal able to finally dealing with about 1 million twenty-foot equal items yearly, in keeping with a port official.
“We’ve signed a lease choice settlement with DP World for a growth … of a container terminal within the Port,” Jeffrey Pollack, chief technique and sustainability officer for the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, informed the American Journal of Transportation in the course of the American Affiliation of Port Authorities annual conference in New Orleans on Sept. 29.
Corpus Christi presently will not be a container port, and Pollack mentioned including container operations would considerably diversify a cargo base closely centered on vitality.
Pollack mentioned officers envision a comparatively modest container operation by the requirements of the most important U.S. gateways, with capability finally topping out round 1 million TEUs yearly.
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DP World eyes return to US ports
The settlement represents a big potential return to U.S. marine terminal operations for DP World.
The corporate, which is owned by the federal government of Dubai within the United Arab Emirates, grew to become the middle of a significant political controversy in 2006 after its acquisition of British terminal operator P&O would have transferred P&O’s terminal leases and operations at a number of main U.S. ports to DP World.
The deal triggered bipartisan opposition in Congress over nationwide safety issues and finally led DP World to divest P&O’s U.S. port operations, in keeping with the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s Feb. 28, 2006 listening to, “Safety of Terminal Operations at U.S. Ports.”
DP World finally introduced in March 2006 that it could divest P&O’s U.S. operations after lawmakers moved to dam the transaction. The controversy got here regardless of the George W. Bush administration’s help for the transaction and its place that port safety would stay below the accountability of U.S. Customs and Border Safety and the Coast Guard.
The Corpus Christi undertaking would mark DP World’s first U.S. container terminal growth since that episode and its first container terminal growth on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
DP World is likely one of the world’s largest terminal operators, dealing with roughly 10% of worldwide container site visitors by way of greater than 60 ports and terminals.
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Corpus Christi appears past vitality
DP World and the Port of Corpus Christi first introduced in June that they’d entered unique negotiations for a long-term lease. Underneath the proposed growth, DP World would design, construct and function the terminal.
On the time, the events mentioned negotiations would concentrate on terminal design, capability planning and the undertaking’s funding construction.
The undertaking may considerably alter Corpus Christi’s place in Gulf Coast freight markets.
The port is likely one of the nation’s largest gateways by whole tonnage however has traditionally targeted on crude oil, liquefied pure fuel, refined petroleum merchandise, agricultural commodities and industrial cargo slightly than containers.
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Corpus Christi additionally not too long ago acquired about 2,000 acres roughly 8 to 10 miles south of its Internal Harbor that port officers envision as an inland port supporting the proposed container terminal.
Pollack mentioned the property can join with all three Class I railroads serving the port and a number of interstate freeway techniques, probably attracting manufacturing, warehousing and different import-export operations.
The container push comes as Corpus Christi continues posting document total cargo volumes. Clients moved 110.3 million tons by way of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in the course of the first half of 2026, up 7.7% from the earlier first-half document of 102.4 million tons set a yr earlier.
Why it issues: The undertaking on the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, would carry DP World again into U.S. container terminal operations twenty years after nationwide safety issues in Congress derailed its acquisition of terminal operations at a number of main American ports.
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