CSCL Mercury, a Chinese container ship with a capacity of 14,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), on Saturday became the first visitor to the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal of Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, built and operated by China's COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSP) and Abu Dhabi Ports, has a design capacity of 2.5 million TEU and begins with a handling capacity of 1.5 million TEU.
CSCL Mercury began service in 2011. Its overall length and beam is 366 meters and 51.2 meters, respectively.
Naser Al Busaeedi, deputy CEO of CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, hailed the arrival of the first ship to the terminal as "very important," which he said marks the beginning of formal operation of the terminal.
Busaeedi also said the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, a key project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is expected to further increase the capacity of Khalifa Port and make it a competitive shipping hub in the Gulf region.
China is the largest non-oil trading partner of the UAE. In 2017, trade between the two countries increased 15 percent to more than 53 billion U.S. dollars, representing 14.7 percent of the UAE's total foreign trade.
