Two dredgers are now working at Anaklia, and the breakwater is designed at 1,376 metres

Two vessels belonging to the Belgian dredging contractor Jan De Nul are working at Anaklia, the second having arrived in late summer. Between them they are reported to be capable of moving more than 70,000 cubic metres of seabed a day. The work is concentrated on the entrance and turning channels, and roughly a kilometre of the breakwater base is reported complete, with stone and aggregate placement proceeding from the land side. This is the first phase of the project that can be verified by looking at it rather than by reading a press release.

The seabed is to be deepened to about 17.5 metres and the breakwater is designed at 1,376 metres in length, with the port aiming for operational availability of at least 95% of the year. Depth of that order is what allows larger post-Panamax vessels to call, which is the whole commercial argument for building a new port rather than expanding the existing ones at Poti and Batumi. The availability target matters for anyone shipping on a schedule: a Black Sea port that closes in weather is a port that cannot be relied on for transit traffic.

Georgia took direct state control of the development after a Chinese consortium left the project in the summer, and the port is being taken forward on a landlord model: the state builds the core marine infrastructure, with private partners expected to develop individual terminals on top of it. Total project cost has been put at around USD 2.5 billion. A model of that kind shifts the risk profile: construction risk sits with the state, while the commercial risk of filling terminals sits with partners who have not all been named.

Earlier in the year the state allocation for Anaklia in the 2026 budget was reported as having been cut from 150 million lari to 50 million, with the difference redirected elsewhere. Dredging continued regardless, which suggests contracted marine works are being honoured, but a project of this scale lives or dies on the consistency of annual appropriations rather than on any single season of activity. For businesses in Samegrelo and the wider west, the question worth tracking each autumn is what next year's budget line says, not how many vessels are visible this month.