Tanjung Priok super port - WorldCargo News Online

PORT DEVELOPMENT
Global operators on a roll
The past four years have
seen huge variations
in annual container
throughputs, with 2009 seeing
the first decline (-10%) in the
industry’s history, 2010 a strong
return to growth (12%) and 2011
and 2012 more modest increases
in the 4-6% range. This year most
analysts are expecting growth in
the 5-6% range.
Although global terminal operators
(GTOs) scaled back on their
capital expansion programmes
slightly in the fiscally constrained
2008-10 period, they still invested
and secured new operating concessions.
For the past 20 years or
so, the sector has seen a constant
increase in its share of the global
container market. This is a situation
that is expected to continue,
despite some renewed interest in
ports and terminals from equity
groups, financial intermediaries
and pension funds.
But the GTOs will be operating
in a slower trading environment
with annualised growth
rates of only 5-6% a year expected
over the next decade. This compares
with average volume rises
of 10-12% a year throughout the
1990s and 2000s, a period that
was characterised by robust traffic
rises and hundreds of new deals
being concluded by the main international
terminal operators/
stevedores as they gained ground
in the industry.
Maturing sector
While the slower rates of growth
in container handling activity
partly relate to poorer global economic
growth prospects, especially
in the OECD countries, they
also reflect the maturing nature of
the container shipping industry.
In many regions of the developed
world well over 80% of general
and neo-bulk cargoes – such as
steel, lumber and forest products –
have already been unitised.
Having said this, there remains
a significant volume of refrigerated
cargo that is moved in specialised
ships, while a range of
agricultural commodities, such as
soya beans, lentils, some grain and
ores, are moved conventionally
and could be containerised if the
right infrastructure were in place.
Geographically, it is the
emerging markets that offer
the GTO industry the best
prospects, principally because:
• Annualised rates of growth over
the next 10 years in regions such
as Africa, Latin America and
Concessions catapult capacity
All the main global terminal operating
companies have sizeable
operating and investment concessions
in place which are due
to deliver a significant amount
of additional container handling
capacity over the next two to
three years.
A conservative estimate suggests
that by the end of 2015,
six leading GTOs – HPH, PSA
International, DP World, APM
Terminals, China Merchants
Holdings International and Cosco
Pacific – collectively will
have added 30M-35M TEU of
annualised handling capacity to
the global total. Of these, DP
World and APMT come out as
being highly ambitious.
DP World’s main projects
are set to add about 12M TEU
of new capacity over the next
two-three years. Around 40%
of this new capacity will come
on stream at its home port of
Jebel Ali in Dubai, with 1M
TEU added through its Jebel Ali
Container Terminal 2 extension
project by the end of 2013 and
up to 4M TEU coming into
operation at the new Terminal 3
complex in 2014.
Elsewhere, its Embramar
project in Santos, where it
works with Odebrecht, will add
1M TEU later this year. At London
Gateway at least 1.6M TEU
will come on stream this year,
with the possibility of a further
2M TEU within the next two
years. While there is some uncertainty
about the scheduling
of its Rotterdam World Gateway
complex, it is expected to open
in late 2014 with a design capacity
of 2.4M TEU and eventually
will be able to handle 4M
TEU a year. By 2020 DP World
hopes to have doubled its 2011
handling capacity and have facilities
capable of handling close
to 100M TEU in place.
APMT has an ambitious
expansion programme in
place too, with a goal of
becoming the world’s leading
container port and inland services
operator by 2016. On the
basis of new developments, the
operator will phase in to service
an estimated 12M TEU of new
capacity over the next three years.
Due to open in late 2014,
APMT’s Maasvlakte II terminal
is among its biggest projects,
with stage one delivering about
2.7M TEU of extra handling
capacity to the Benelux market,
eventually increasing to 4.5M
TEU, to be phased in according
to market demand. Developments
in the emerging markets
will be responsible for most of
the group’s remaining capacity
increases as terminals in Santos,
Callao, Lazaro Cardenas, Izmir,
Port Moin and Ningbo are
completed.
Hong Kong’s HPH and Singapore’s
PSA International have
fewer concessions and expansion
programmes in place, although
the Singapore Government
is preparing to build an
entirely new box port at Tuas
in the west of the island. While
no time frame is known for the
development, PSA’s leases with
the government for its terminals
at Keppel, Pulau Brani and Tanjong
Pagar will expire in 2017.
In the meantime, PSA is focused
on expanding its Pasir
Panjang terminal. An estimated
S$3.5B will be spent on phases
three and four with at least 8M
TEU of additional handling capacity
expected to be in place at
the complex over the next decade.
The next two years will also
see it complete a 1.8M TEU
capacity terminal at Dammam
in Saudi Arabia and add some
capacity at Port Mariel, Cuba.
Outside of the leading pack,
Manila-based ICTSI has secured
a number of high profile
concessions in the last few years
and was recently shortlisted in
the bidding process to build
a third terminal in the port of
Melbourne, Australia.
The next two-three years will
see the group introduce new
handling capacity throughout its
network, including at its flagship
facility in Manila, at Manzanillo
in Mexico, Lekki in Nigeria,
Gdynia in Poland and Rijeka
in Croatia. Overall, a projected
4M-5M TEU of new handling
capacity will be added to ICT-
SI’s global portfolio of facilities
over this period.
Despite high levels of volatility and
uncertainty over container growth
prospects, global terminal operators
continue to invest heavily
parts of Asia are projected to
be three-four times higher than
those in Europe, North America,
Japan and maturing nations in
Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan
and Singapore.
• There is a rising demand for the
development of modern cargo/
container handling facilities and
associated infrastructure. Local
port authorities are often short
of cash or unable to raise the finance
for such projects.
• Rising levels of foreign direct investment
by a mix of companies,
quite often including manufacturers/producers,
dictate that
efficient supply chains are in
place. Fundamentally, this means
efficient ports and container terminals
to handle the import/export
flows that normally follow
on from the investment.
APM Terminals (APMT), China
Merchants Holdings (International)
(CMHI), DP World and PSA
International (PSA) are among the
leading GTOs already well-established
in managing terminals in
the developing world. Each is actively
chasing new opportunities.
Russian roulette
Last year saw APMT make a key
move into the Russian market, a
region singled out by group CEO
Kim Fejfer as displaying the fastest
growth rates of any BRIC nation
last year and offering sound
prospects. The Netherlandsheadquartered
terminal operator
bought a 37.5% stake in Global
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PSA will spend S$3.5B to build an additional 8M TEU of capacity at Pasir
Panjang terminal over the next decade, while the Singapore government is
planning a new box port at Tuas in the west of the island
Ports Investments (GPI), Russia’s
leading operator of container terminals,
which also has a presence
in Finland and Latvia. GPI handled
about 1.4M TEU in 2012,
up 8% on 2011, and with about
a 30% share of Russia’s total container
market.
“Russia will need world-class
port infrastructure and operational
excellence to serve global shipping
lines and meet its own ambitions
of economic development
and GPI has a ‘good eye’ to grow
the business. This deal is a great opportunity
for APMT,” said Fejfer.
He added: “The nation’s rapidly
developing middle class, Russia’s
integration with the global
economy as evidenced by its
membership of the WTO plus
the country’s wealth of natural
resources will continue to fuel the
growth in exports and imports in
the long run.”
GPI controls the Petrolesport
and Moby Dik terminals in St
Petersburg – a total operating
capacity of 1.8M TEU – as well
as the city’s Yanino Logistics Park.
May 2013 59