United Arab Emirates-based port operator Gulftainer met with Delaware officials on a container site at the recently acquired Chemours Edgemoor site.
A story in the News Journal indicated that the meeting took place with Secretary of State Jeff Bullock. Port of Wilmington operator Diamond State Port Corp. is one of many entities within the Secretary of State’s Office.
Douglas Dennison, a spokesman for the The Secretary of State’s office confirmed the meeting occurred, but said Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock would not comment on details.
The state has been pitching the Chemours site, which is being razed, for a port that would work for massive container ships. Unlike the Port of Wilmington, the Chemours site is on the Delaware River. The Port of Wilmington at the mouth of the Christiana River and the Delaware.
Gulftainer is a 40-year-old privately owned, independent port management logistics company.
Its sole U.S. project is Port Canaveral in Florida. The company invested a reported $100 million in the container side of the port, which is best known as a home for cruise ships.
Gulftainer’s current portfolio covers activities at Umm Qasr Port in Iraq, Recife Port in Brazil, Tripoli Port in Lebanon and in Saudi Arabia where it manages container terminals in Jeddah and Jubail.
The company confirmed on its website that it is looking at “several potential new ventures in line with the company’s commercial strategy and growth, driving its vision of becoming one of the world’s top six container terminal operators within the next 10 years.”
Expanding port facilities in the state has long been a goal of government officials as the state deals with a long-running loss of jobs following the shutdown of the state’s two auto plants and its sole steel mill during the past decade.
The port has a strong position in banana and fruit imports and receives bulk commodities and steel. Steel imports could be impacted by recent tariffs ordered by the Trump Administration.
Former New Castle, County Executive Tom Gordon, working with the Longshoremen’s Union, pitched a port site in the New Castle area. The proposal did not appear to go anywhere.
The state undertook an unsuccessful effort to privatize the Port of Wilmington. Legislators and a Longshoremen’s union president did not see energy company Kinder Morgan as a good fit.
Diamond State has since made investments in the port. See story below.
