Egypt's First Dry Port in Alexandria, El Amreya, Opens on October 11
en.Wedoany.com Reported - Alexandria's first dry port, El Amreya Dry Port, will open on October 11, with officials from Egypt's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport in attendance. It is Egypt's second dry port after Sixth of October, CEO Ahmed Abul Hassan told EnterpriseAM. Official data seen by EnterpriseAM shows that container throughput via Alexandria and Dekheila grew 14% in fiscal year 2025-26 to 2.59 million TEU; transshipment led the growth as shippers shifted to Mediterranean gateways, while geopolitical tensions affected Red Sea ports.
Dry ports move part of seaports' warehousing, handling and customs operations inland, shortening container dwell time at terminals and enabling faster, cheaper movement of goods between factories, ports and markets. El Amreya is the first dry port to directly serve Alexandria and is one of 33 dry ports and logistics zones the Ministry of Transport hopes to build nationwide.
Safety Navigation and Transport, which won the contract to build El Amreya, sees it as an integrated logistics corridor serving exporters and all links in the supply chain, Chairman Ahmed Mustafa told EnterpriseAM. The port has separate yards for loaded containers, reefers, empty containers and hazardous cargo containers, as well as a yard for vehicles and equipment. Abul Hassan said the site includes an MTS logistics center that organizes processes and operations within the port, allowing cargo owners to access different services in the same facility.
El Amreya has four cold storage warehouses with a total of 16 compartments, each holding up to 625 units, suitable for cargo requiring ultra-low temperatures; two dry warehouses each hold up to 1,100 units. At launch, the port will be connected to Nafeza, Egypt's National Single Window for Foreign Trade, to process customs procedures digitally, and integrated with the national railway network, a combination aimed at reducing cargo transport costs by 15%-20%.
In fiscal year 2025-26, transshipment containers grew 74%, from 317,400 TEU in the same period a year earlier to 553,400 TEU; transshipment tonnage rose 62% to 5.78 million tons. Loaded containers serving the local market grew more slowly, up 6% from 1.5 million TEU to 1.59 million TEU; empty containers fell 1.3% to 446,500 TEU; total container tonnage rose 11% to 28.31 million tons.
On vessels, container ship calls rose 7% to 2,100; roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) ship calls rose 26% to 221; liquid bulk carrier calls rose 5% to 658; dry bulk carrier calls were flat at 818. Egypt is also serving as a land bridge for some cargo flows, with shippers rerouting Europe-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) goods through Egypt: trailers land at Damietta, travel overland to Safaga, then cross the border into Saudi Arabia.
The Ministry of Transport's 33 dry ports and logistics zones aim to connect manufacturing, agricultural and mining centers with seaports and consumer markets via road and rail. These facilities are located along seven corridors, including Arish-Taba, Sokhna-Alexandria, Cairo-Alexandria, Tanta-Mansoura-Damietta, Gargoub-Salloum, Cairo-Aswan-Abu Simbel and Safaga-Qena-Abu Tartour.
More projects are in the pipeline: Sky Ports is developing a dry port in New Borg El Arab in Alexandria, with technical studies expected to be submitted early this month; Medlog's $130 million Tenth of Ramdan dry port and logistics hub is expected to begin operations in 2027.
