Customers
Djibouti Container Terminal
Djibouti Container Terminal

Knowing precisely where their assets are at any given moment makes our customers very happy.
—Ahmed Moussa Djama, Navis Administrator, Djibouti Container Terminal

 

Separated from Yemen by only 12 miles of open water and situated on the Gulf of Aden at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, Djibouti has served as a vital trade link between Africa and Asia for more than three thousand years. Today, the Djibouti Container Terminal (PDCT) continues that ancient tradition. The only seaport connected by rail with Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, PDCT serves as that landlocked nation's primary link to the sea. In fact, a full 85 percent of its throughput today is Ethiopian export/import, including such vital export commodities as coffee, cotton and hides.

In 2004, after years being plagued with software outages that routinely brought yard operations to a grinding halt, the Djibouti Container Terminal turned to Navis, a Zebra Technologies Company, to upgrade its terminal operating system (TOS). The terminal replaced its incumbent application with Navis™ SPARCS TOS and Navis™ Web Access®.

Implementation of the Navis SPARCS TOS went smoothly, with Navis Professional Services providing training and support and the Djibouti Container Terminal went live with Navis SPARCS TOS on September 1, 2004. The improvements were immediate. System uptime skyrocketed from roughly 70 percent to better than 99 percent, a level that has been maintained ever since.

"Because the Navis system is so reliable, our operation now runs 24 hours a day. There are no down times, no worries. I go home after work and don’t worry about system crashes," says Ahmed Moussa Djama, Navis Administrator, Djibouti Container Terminal.

Both a transit port for the region and an international transshipment center, the Djibouti Container Terminal handles some 300,000 TEUs annually. Since going live with Navis SPARCS TOS, the terminal has achieved double-digit growth in throughput every year. The port expects to see an additional 15 percent increase in throughput in 2008 thanks to marked improvements in efficient yard planning and equipment dispatch.

Enhanced Customer Services
While its throughput has climbed steadily, the headcount at the Djibouti Container Terminal has remained relatively flat, at about 350 full-time employees. Customers, who used to hire watchmen to observe their assets moving in and out of the facility, now rely instead on Navis Web Access to track the movement of their inventory from virtually anywhere in the world.

"Knowing precisely where their assets are at any given moment makes our customers very happy," says Djama. "They do not need to call us or hire watchmen to track their containers or trucks."

The Doraleh Terminal
Today, the Djibouti Container Terminal has two 400-meter berths and four quay cranes, and is capable of serving Panamax class ships. By yearend 2008, a new facility called the Dorelah Container Terminal is scheduled to open 11 kilometers from the existing Djibouti Container Terminal. The new facility will be four times larger than the existing facility. With a 1,000-meter berth, six quay cranes, and a water depth of 18 meters, the new Doraleh Container Terminal will be capable of handling post- Panamax vessels.

The Djibouti government plans a three-phase implementation of the Doraleh Container Terminal. In the first phase, it will handle 1.5 million TEUs annually. During the second and third phases, annual throughput will increase to two million and three million TEUs, respectively. A larger revenue base, resulting from the increased traffic, is likely to enable the terminal to charge lower handling fees on both local and transit boxes.

Improvements at the Doraleh Container Terminal are designed to make Djibouti one of the most modern ports on the east coast of Africa, allowing it to further develop its natural and historical role as the trade hub of the region.

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