The terminal was built by state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company with funds from the Namibian government and the African Development Bank. The cost of the installation is 4.2 billion rand (around $280 million). "The completion of the container terminal expansion puts us on a firm trajectory towards realising our dream of transforming Namibia into an international logistics hub," President Hage Geingob said at Friday's inauguration ceremony.
A 'State of Logistics' report released by the Walvis Bay Corridor Group last year said the new terminal would increase the capacity of the port to 750,000 containers per year from 350,000 with the potential to go over a milion in the future. Geingob said "Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are among the main land linked, now sea-linked markets for seaborne transit cargo by volume going through the port of Walvis Bay".