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Media
HEAVYWEIGHT global terminal operators DP World and PSA International are among eight companies bidding for the right to build and operate a new container terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru-Nhava Sheva port complex near Mumbai that will have an annual box handling capacity of four million TEU. The pair already operates terminals in Chennai and Tuticorin.
The new container terminal is expected to cost US$1.4 billion to develop and would almost double the capacity of India's biggest port, which handles more than half of all containerised cargo moving in and out of India, said the American Shipper, citing a report carried by the Indian business newspaper Mint.
The Jawaharlal Nehru-Nhava Sheva port handled 3.95 million TEU in 2009, a volume that slightly exceeded the designed capacity of the three-terminal complex. DP World and APM Terminals each operate a terminal while the third is operated by a local port trust.
"While DP World is bidding for a second terminal, APM Terminals has not been allowed to bid due to a contractual clause in the concession it won to operate its current terminal, the newest and largest of the three existing terminals. The AP Moller-Maersk Group subsidiary is contesting its exclusion from the bidding process in India's High Court," the report said.
The other bidders vying for the rights to build and operate the proposed new terminal are all domestic companies, after "China's major operators--Hutchison Port Holdings, Cosco Pacific and China Merchants--have been unofficially excluded from submitting bids to operate Indian container terminals in recent years, a nod to security concerns India has about the potential naval power China could wield," it said.
According to the report, the bid turnout was disappointing, "as some bidders were disgruntled with India's notoriously inflexible bid conditions," whereby India's shipping ministry is said to demand a "large cut of revenue" from each container moved at the country's major ports.
(Source: www.schednet.com)
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