Global port operator APM Terminals (APMT) and China’s Ningbo Port Group have signed a deal to partner in the expansion of facilities at a new container terminal in Ningbo port, China.
Under the joint-venture agreement, Ningbo Port Group will have a 75 percent share while APMT will have a 25 percent stake in the construction of a US$673-million facility that will expand the capacity at Ningbo’s Meishan Container Terminal, the newest container terminal in Ningbo.
The two companies will jointly invest in building berths 3, 4, and 5 at the Meishan Container Terminal Phase 1 and manage them under a 50-year concession arrangement.
The joint venture will begin operations by December 31, 2014, APMT said in a press release.
“This agreement creates important new port capacity needed for our customers in one of the fastest-growing container markets in the world,” Henrik Pedersen, chief executive of APM Terminals Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement.
Ningbo, a major gateway port in Eastern China, is the sixth largest container port in the world. It had a container throughput of 14.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2011 and is predicted to exceed 80 percent of its capacity by the end of 2012.
APMT, the port arm of Danish shipping and oil giant A.P. Moller–Maersk, will invest about $500 million in the three berths, to rise along a quay measuring more than one kilometer in length and having a maximum capacity of 2.8 million TEUs.
Photo: jimbowen0306
