Chennai mulls letting out PSA-Sical terminal

The Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) is considering letting out the second container terminal, which is run by PSA-Sical and currently “under-utilised’’, to handle cargo, according to Subhash Kumar, chairman of ChPT.

“We are in dialogue with PSA-Sical on this,” he told The Hindu.
PSA Sical — a joint venture between PSA International of Singapore and Sical Logistics of Chennai — started the terminal operations mid last year and is handling less than 20,000 boxes a month.

It currently has nearly 28 hectares (totally it will get 34 hectares), which will not be entirely required immediately.
On the other hand, there is demand for space for handling cars and other clean cargo. “We have just begun the dialogue with the company and do not know when it will work out,” Kumar said.

The designed capacity of Chennai International Terminals Pvt Ltd (CITPL) is to handle annually around 1.5 million TEUs, but it will be handling only 0.3 million TEUs this year and a few more thousand boxes more next year.

“Till they settle down, we can give the space to somebody else,” Kumar said.

As the terminal is under a licence agreement with the private operator which pays a royalty to ChPT for the terminal, there are a number of issues that need to be sorted out before it can be given to others.

Source: Cargo News Asia