Kuwait's Al-Mal Investment Co and Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group are bidding for Tunisia's $1.4 billion Enfida port licence, according to Tunisian state news agency TAP.

Reuters quoted TAP saying that Al-Mal is partnering the world's largest port operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) in its bid to win the deep-water Enfida port licence.

Al-Mal is controlled by the Kuwaiti family-owned conglomerate Kharafi Group, while the SNC-Lavalin Group has been described as one of the world's ten largest engineering and construction groups.

Tunisian officials say the winning bid will be named later this year.

The port project would boost North African ports' share of regional transshipment. 

According to Tunisian officials, the Enfida facilities - some 130 km south of Tunis - will have capacity for five million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year.

Analysts have long said that North Africa's ports could challenge European ports for regional container transshipment traffic.

Lower labour costs and fewer environmental restrictions are two factors boosting North Africa's competitiveness.

European Sea Ports Organization chairman Giuliano Gallanti has been quoted saying “this is going to become a serious problem and it would seem as if there is not much Europe can do.”

“The threat is mostly in the Mediterranean, though to a certain extent in the Baltic there is competition from the Russian ports too,” said Gallanti.

Analysts have pointed to Morocco's Mediterranean port of Tangier as a leading potential rival to European transshipment hubs.

Algeciras Bay port authority chairman Manuel Moron Ledro said that ports such as Tangiers have very low salaries and little environmental constraints.

“It's also very easy for shipping lines to switch traffic to the other side of the straits,” said Ledro, explaining that labour costs in Tangiers were between 60% to 70% lower than in Spain.

As of late 2007, Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) were already investing in the Tangier facilities.  The port was scheduled to handle up to eight million TEUs per year when fully operational.

In other developments, the Moroccan government has been considering building a $1.7-billion container port to complement the Tangier Mediterranean port, which came on stream mid-2007.

The new port project, which will have three container terminals, is projected to have a handling capacity of five million TEUs per year.

The Tangier Mediterranean port, which has been under construction since 2002, currently has one container terminal with a handling capacity of three million TEUs a year.

The Egyptian ports of Damietta and Port Said are also being considered as potential transshipment hubs.  A $480-million credit line was agreed by two Bahraini banks to fund new container handling facilities, due for completion this year, at the Mediterranean port of Damietta.

Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) has also signed a concession agreement with the Egyptian government for Phase 2 of the East Port Said port development, reports said.

Maersk unit APM Terminals BV. holds a 60% controlling stake in SCCT.

Phase 2 development is scheduled to double SCCT container handling capacity by 2011 to about 5.1 million TEUs from the current figure of 2.55 million TEUs per year.

Alexandria International Container Terminals, part of the Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) group of companies, has also officially opened two new container facilities at Egypt's ports of Alexandria and El Dekheila.

A successful bid for the Enfida project would boost HPH's presence in the region.