WorldCargo News Online

PORT NEWS
RFQ for Daniel Island
The South Carolina State Ports
Authority (SPA) is soliciting bids
for 1300 acres of property on
Daniel Island in Charleston
Harbor. Responses to the Request
for Qualifications (RFQ) are due
by mid-May, to be be followed by
a formal Request for Proposals
(RFP).The selection of a buyer
could be finalised by October.
SPA acquired the land in the
1990s for development as a container
terminal, but faced strong opposition
from residents. In 2002, the
project was abandoned in favour of
port expansion on the former
Charleston Naval Complex.
In another important development,
the final pieces of the old
Cooper River bridges over
Charleston’s main shipping channel
have been removed, leaving a
vertical clearance of 186ft at mean
high water. The former bridges,
which date from 1929 and 1966,
had a vertical clearance of 150ft
The old bridge clearance means unrestricted access for bigger ships
at mean high water.
The new Ravenel Bridge,
which opened last July, is the largest
cable-stayed bridge in North
America.The two bridge towers
are spaced 1500ft apart, enabling
New DPW terminal for Djibouti
DP World has announced plans
to develop a new container terminal
facility in Doraleh at the
Port of Djibouti. DPW already
manages the port and says the
US$300M investment will enable
it to handle an additional 1.5M
TEU annually.
The new facility will be located
11 kms from the existing
one and DPW plans to start work
on the site within the next few
months. The terminal will have
eight superpost-Panamax gantry
cranes on a quay length of 900m
and is expected to commence
operations in late 2008.
The existing port has the capacity
to handle 10 mtpa of cargo
and 500,000 containers per year.
DPW says that under its management
container productivity has
more than doubled to 25 per hour.
“When completed, this facility
will give DP World a very
strong platform to service our
customers’ operations in Eastern
and Southern Africa,” said SVP,
the channel to be widened from
600ft to 1000ft in future.
Charleston’s recently completed
harbour deepening project brought
the channels to 44ft at MLW and
the entrance channel to 47ft.
operations, Joost Kruijning.
“Our commitment to investing
in this project is long term and
I look forward to working closely
with our partners to develop
Djibouti into a key regional transhipment
hub.”
DP World has already announced
a US$30M investment
in the Doraleh Oil Terminal
project.The Government of
Djibouti has contracted DP
World to manage the terminal
once it is completed.
Malaysia looks to new plan
Malaysian port operators have
generally welcomed the government’s
9th Malaysian Plan on Seaports
that calls for volume to be
lifted from 12M TEU in 2005 to
18M TEU by 2010, but there is
still plenty of debate over priorities
for government funding.
Recently PTP chairman
Datuk Mohd Sidik Shaik Osman
was elected President of the Federation
of Malaysian Port Operator
Companies (FMPOC) and
said his task was to increase the
competitiveness of Malaysian ports
and ensure a level playing field
with regional ports that enjoy a
strong government backing.
Officially, Port Klang is still the
“national load centre” but other
ports are not prepared to accept
“regional’ demarcation and want
to attract direct calls.
Penang is asking the government
for around US$28M to
dredge the channel to its
Butterworth Container Terminal
from 11.5m to 13m to attract
direct services to China
and India and push its volume
over 1M TEU.
The new national plan sets the target of container throughput going up 50% to
18M TEU/year by 2010
Growth in Malaysia levelled off
last year to 4.5%, mainly due to
consolidation at PTP Tanjung
Pelepas after three years of spectacular
growth. In the absence of
major new transhipment customers,
ports have turned their attention
to logistics and free zones to
attract manufacturing. Port Klang
is due to open its Free Zone later
this year and the Malaysian Industrial
Development Authority says
it is modelled after Jebel Ali in the
UAE and Klang will become a
regional hub for shipping, manufacturing,
commerce and distribution
activities.
Port Klang terminal operator
Westport, however, is calling
for the Ministry of Transport to
liberalise the port charging regime
and allow ports to set their
own tariffs to make them more
competitive.
Skodaexport for South India
Czech major Skodaexport Company
has announced plans to build
an integrated port complex in the
south Indian state of Andhra
Pradesh in collaboration with Infrastructure
Corporation of
Andhra Pradesh Ltd. (Incap).
The complex will include a
port, a special economic zone, a
power plant and a urea manufacturing
unit. It will cost US$1B and
take four years to build.The port
will be located at Nizampatnam,
between Visakhapatnam and
Chennai ports.
“India has been identified as a
strategic investment opportunity
and we plan to take up more such
projects,” said Skodaexport's CEO
Jaroslav Hubacek.
“The SEZ alongside the
port complex will host a 250
MW captive coal-based power
plant and a 500,000 tpa urea
plant.While the detailed project
report would be ready within a
year, we expect to achieve financial
closure shortly thereafter
and complete these projects simultaneously
by 2010.
“The project envisages modernisation
of the existing harbour
to a mid-size port that has the
potential to handle bulk cargo,
coal, granite, cement and agriproducts.
“The port will also serve as a
base for bringing in imported coal
for the power plant. Our studies
show there is a huge potential for
such a port as it is centrally located.”
A separate joint venture company
will be formed for the
project. It is understood that
Incap’s equity will come mainly
in the form of land for the port
complex and SEZ.
WorldCargo
news
April 2006 9