Port of Alexandria Coal Terminal
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Port of Alexandria Coal Terminal is located in Port of Alexandria, Egypt. It is owned and operated by The Alexandria Port Authority. [1][2]
Location
The port of Alexandria is located at the west end of the Nile river, between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariot.
Background
The Port of Alexandria is Egypt's principal maritime gateway, handling approximately 60 per cent of the country's foreign trade. Coal and other non-clean dry bulk cargoes are handled across two adjacent facilities administered by the same authority: Alexandria Port proper and El-Dekheila Port, located roughly 10 km to the west.[3] Coal handling at Alexandria port is located in the Fourth Zone, between berth 49 and 67.[4]
Coal handling at the Port of Alexandria is linked to Egypt's decision to lift a long-standing ban on coal imports. After energy shortages following the 2011 revolution left cement plants short of natural gas, the government came under industry pressure to allow coal as an alternative fuel. Before imports were legalised, the French cement company Lafarge landed a coal shipment at the port; after photos of uncovered coal and petroleum coke stockpiles near a residential area of Alexandria circulated in the local press, then-Minister of Environment Laila Iskander intervened, and the company was fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about US$1,400) for importing coal without the approval of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency. In April 2014, Egypt's cabinet voted to allow coal imports for heavy industry, and in April 2015 an amendment to the environmental law extended permitted coal use to electricity generation.[5]
Coal Imports
Egypt imported 6.32 million mt of thermal coal in 2019, up 31% on the previous year, according to official data from the Port of Alexandria, boosted by strong demand from the cement sector. Officials at the port confirmed that most of the coal loadings were of US origin. Egypt's thermal coal imports experienced two consistently healthy years of growth with imports rising gradually in 2019 and spiking enormously by 174% in 2018 to total 4.81 million mt, from 1.75 million mt in 2017.
Egypt's largest cement producer El Arish Cement remained the country's largest importer of thermal coal, taking 2.04 million mt or 32% of total coal imports in 2019, up from 28% of total thermal coal imported in 2018. This plant alone represents around 17% of Egypt's national capacity.[6]
Project Details
- Operator: The Alexandria Port Authority
- Location: Port of Alexandria, Egypt
- Coal Capacity:
- Dry Bulk Capacity: 5.6 Million tonnes per annum[7]
- Start year: 2014[8]
- Status: Operating
- Type: Imports
- Sources of coal: United States, Russia, China[9]
References
- ↑ "Port of Ulsan," World Port Source, accessed May 2015
- ↑ "Client Challenge". www.slideshare.net. Retrieved 2026-09-04.
- ↑ "Alexandria Port Authority".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Alexandria Port".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Louise Sarant, "In post-revolution Egypt, a fierce fight over coal imports," Mongabay, April 2017.
- ↑ "Egypt 2019 thermal coal imports rise 31% on cement sector demand".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Alexandria port".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "تحذيرات من استخدام الفحم لتوليد الطاقة في مصر | اقتصاد | الجزيرة نت". www.aljazeera.net. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "الموانئ المصرية تستقبل 436 ألف طن فحم خلال الأسبوع الحالي - جريدة المال". almalnews.com. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
