Port Authority would pay $800 million to lease APM terminal

The Virginia Port Authority would pay at least US$800 million over 20 years to lease the new APM Terminals facility in Portsmouth, according to Govenor Bob McDonnell, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

The Port Authority would pay $40 million a year, plus incentive payments for container volumes of more than 500,000 a year, to APM Terminals over the 20-year life of the lease, confirmed Sean Connaughton, Virginia's Secretary of Transportation.

The arrangement would add APM Terminals' three-year-old, $500 million marine facility in Portsmouth onto the existing operations of the state's three terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News.

The deal still must be approved by the Port Authority's board of commissioners and officials at APM's headquarters in the Netherlands.

McDonnell's announcement comes about nine months after Port Authority officials first revealed that they were in talks with APM Terminals, under terms of a "discussion agreement" filed with the Federal Maritime Commission in late 2008.

The agreement let the port's public and privately held assets talk about and agree on an array of ordinarily confidential business matters, including terminal rates, terms and conditions relating to the handling of cargo, and the "use and operation of marine terminal facilities," even the "sharing of any such facilities," according to a copy of the agreement.

(Source: Cargo News Asia)