Friendship Port of Nouakchott, located along Nouakchott Atlantic Wharf, is 585.1m long with three berths of the capacity over 10,000DWT. It is the second largest project constructed with the aid of Chinese government in Africa and is praised as “an example of South-South cooperation” by the international community. Its construction started in April, 1979 and ended in July, 1986.
The expansion of Friendship Port No. 4 and No. 5 Berths started in January, 2008 and ended in August, 2014. After its completion, the annual throughput of Friendship Port reached 6 million DWT.
This project mainly comprises of two 20,000DWT multi-functional berths, one 5000DWT oil berth, corresponding harbor basin and channel dredging, office building, road linking the container yard, spur dike, water retaining soil embankment and so on. No. 4 and No. 5 Berth Wharfs are 650m long in total and the water retaining soil embankment is 5100m long in total; the building area of the housing is 5,000m2; the total work amount of harbor basin and channel dredging is 1,950,000m3.
Friendship Port No. 4 and No. 5 Berths Expansion Project won the first prize of the Excellent Project Management Achievement Award at the 11th National Construction Project Award Ceremony, 2016-2017 National High-quality Project Award, and 2013-2014 CCCC Brand Project. The QC group for steel pile easing-in construction of the project was awarded as 2012 Excellent QC Group in National Transportation Industry.
The completion of Friendship Port No. 4 and No. 5 Berths will relieve the pressure from Port throughput increase, play a positive role in the industrial layout, shipping logistics, warehousing and processing around the Port, thus creating a good environment for the economic development of Mauritania and its surrounding countries.
The completion of Friendship Port No. 4 and No. 5 Berths will play a major role in sovereignty protection of Mauritania, political diplomacy between China and Mauritania and the development of bilateral relations, which will in turn promote friendly cooperation between China and Arab countries, African countries.