China firm selected for Venezuela port project

Venezuela is refurbishing its main port, Puerto Cabello, with Chinese help at a cost of US$600 million after decades of under-investment and spurred on by a scandal over rotting food, reported Reuters.

China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company, will be in charge of the project to build a new container terminal. The first stage of work is estimated to cost some $600 million.

"Puerto Cabello has been left behind the times, without investment since 1970," Transport and Communications Minister Francisco Garces said during the signing of a memorandum of understanding with CHEC.

President Hugo Chavez's government last year nationalised the port, which receives about 75 percent of all the South American OPEC member's imports. He also nationalised two more of Venezuela's seven other ports, reversing their 1990s privatisations.

"We know there are currently many problems at the port, and this work is necessary to increase the efficiency of loading and unloading containers," CHEC's general manager in Venezuela, Huixian Yu, told Reuters.

Puerto Cabello hit the headlines in June with the discovery there of tens of thousands of tonnes of food in shipping containers left to rot by a state-run importer.

The saga was embarrassing for Chavez ahead of September 26 legislative elections, since he often blames sporadic shortages of staples on capitalist speculators hoarding for profits.

Among the works planned for the port's refurbishment is the construction of two berths for post-Panamax ships that are more than 300m long. Garces said the overall project would double the cargo the country could receive.

CHEC's Yu said his company was in talks with Petroquimica de Venezuela (Pequiven) and state oil company PDVSA about other projects. He did not give more details.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)