Georgian–US JV Wins Tender to Construct $2.5 billion Anaklia Port

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said Monday that Anaklia Development Consortium LLC (ADC), a joint venture comprised of Tbilisi-based TBC Holding and U.S. infrastructure developer Conti Group, has won a tender to construct a USD $2.5 billion deep sea port in the Black Sea coastal city Anaklia, close to Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region.

The Conti Group will serve as the overall program manager to develop, design, and construct the port.

The port will be developed in several phases, with the initial stage of construction beginning later this year, Kvirikashvili said.

The port construction will create several thousand jobs and offer a significant boost to Georgia’s failing economy, according to Kvirikashvili.

According to ADC, the Georgian government has committed USD $100 million to build a port for berth container ships with capacity of 10,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units).

ADC will develop 400 hectares of land over the next 49 years as part of the port’s overall development. It will also receive the right to develop a free industrial zone on 600 hectares of land, adjacent to the planned port.

During the first phase of the project, covering the first three years of the port’s operations, the annual capacity should reach a minimum of seven million tonnes of cargo, according to Kvirikashvili.

At present, Georgia’s two other Black Sea ports - Batumi and Poti – can only handle feeder vessels with a maximum of 1,700 containers.