Admiral Osama Rabie, Chairperson of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) witnessed last Monday the signing ceremony of a licensing contract for two vacant plots of land owned by the SCA in the Ataka quarry area in front of the port of Adabiya, for the benefit of the IACC Holdings Group. The contract allows IACC Holdings Group to use them for the storage and handling of containers and general goods, and the establishment and development of a logistics park, which is strategically located adjacent to many seaports and industrial areas in the Suez Governorate. Mohamed El Ahwal, CEO of IACC Holdings, and Mohamed Abdel Azim, Director of Works Department at the Suez Canal Authority, attended the ceremony. Regional expansion IACC Holdings asserted that the deal with the SCA to establish and operate the new logistics services zone is in line with the group's expansion strategy. The project provides many services and logistics activities, including customs warehouses for goods as well as value-added shipping services. Thanks to its strategic location, the new project will offer multimodal freight transportation across the country through a network of roads, land axes, railways and marine transport lines. One of the most significant outcomes of the agreement is adding container storage warehouses, amounting to more than 36,000 m2, subdivided into two storage spaces, 29,191.20 m2 and 7,077.60 m2, respectively, according to IACC Holdings. Putting Egypt logistics services sector on the regional and international map The SCA is sparing no effort in maximizing the optimal use of its assets and resources, which is a key element of achieving its strategy for 2023, the SCA chairman said. Rabie added that the IACC Holdings Group has long experience in providing logistics services over 40 years, and has been able to contribute to the development of supply chain services and the logistics industry and strengthen Egypt's global position in such a huge market. He noted that the agreement with IACC will allow the authority to benefit from the untapped land plot and transform it into a logistics services area and bonded warehouses. This will bolster the efforts exerted to develop logistics activities and keep pace with the expansion of container handling activity at the Adabiya Port. Commenting on this important agreement, Eng. Mohamed El Ahwal, CEO of IACC Holdings said, "we are delighted to announce this agreement with the SCA today. We believe that the establishment of this logistics park represents a vital solution to the current challenge faced by many ports – increased congestion and a lack of nearby external storage capacity. We firmly support the political leadership's goal of moving storage yards out of the ports and enhancing the use of ports as logistics hubs. This agreement is a testament to our commitment to this approach and we plan to absorb customer demand in 2022 by providing additional storage spaces outside ports, as well as ground and other supplementary/auxiliary services." IACC Holdings is comprised of four wholly-owned subsidiaries including Transmar, a container liner focused on the Red Sea, Transcargo International (TCI), a stevedoring and terminal operator with operations across several ports in Egypt, Safina, which is a marine agent with offices in all Egyptian ports, and finally, IACC Logistics, a 3PL logistics player. The new project is an extension of the group's existing operations and will support the companies' customers across their import and export activities, offering value-added services for the container, bulk, general, and project cargo customers.
