DP World rejects Yemen port allegations

By Reuters

    Wednesday, 20 June 2012

DP World, the Dubai-government owned port operator, said allegations it had failed to meet its obligations in running Yemen's Aden container port were "misleading and unfounded."

The impoverished country's anti-corruption body said on Tuesday it would ask parliament to cancel the deal with the world's third largest port operator, saying it had failed to carry out investment projects on time.

"DP World rejects such unfounded and misleading accusations. We have met all contractual commitments with respect to the Aden port operations," the company, one of the profitable units of indebted state-owned conglomerate Dubai World, said in a brief emailed statement on Wednesday.

Yemen signed a contract with DP World in 2008 to develop and run the port, whose strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea once made it a vital stop for ships bound for the Suez Canal.

The agreement between DP World and the Yemen Gulf of Aden Port Corp stipulates $220 million of investment to develop the port.

Earlier this year, Yemeni transport minister Waaed Bazeeb told Reuters the company had missed a target of raising container capacity to 900,000 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) by the end of 2011, and failed to build and provide infrastructure as specified in the 2008 agreement.