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WorldCargo
PORT NEWS
news
Fresh call for Colombo bids
The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) has Bids will be opened by the Cabinet ing designed or already deployed on trade
called for fresh bids for the construction appointed negotiating committee on be- routes as the existing facilities in Colombo
of a new container terminal at the Port half of the SLPA on May 19. are now inadequate. The project is aimed
of Colombo following allegations of im- In the earlier round of bidding, a con- at helping Colombo retain and enhance
propriety in the earlier tendering process sortium led by Singapore’s PSA Interna- its position as a transhipment hub for cargo
(see WorldCargo News February 2008, p12). tional, which included local partner to and from the Indian subcontinent.
A request for proposals was published Aitken Spence, was chosen by the gov- Construction of the breakwaters for
on January 31, almost two years after the ernment negotiating team, but the SLPA the new port is already underway with
Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved preferred Hutchison Port Holdings funding mainly from the ADB. South
a loan of US$300M for the project. (HPH) of Hong Kong, which had bid on Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Con-
The tender calls for bids from inter- its own. The bids were subsequently nul- struction Company is carrying out the
national and local firms to design, build, lified after HPH’s eligibility to tender was dredging and breakwater work under the
finance, manage and operate the termi- called into question. supervision of Britain’s Scott Wilson.
nal in the new Colombo South Harbour, The new terminal, one of three such The new terminal will be served by a In the first phase of construction, the Artist’s impression of Colombo South Harbour
which is being built to the west of the facilities planned for the South Harbour, is two-way channel with a depth of 20m breakwaters will enclose a basin area of
being built to the west of the existing port
existing port. designed to handle bigger vessels now be- and width of 570m. 285 hectares, which will support three
new terminals, each with quay length of
1200m and land area of 58 hectares
The basin will be dredged to 18m with
provision to deepen it to 21m should a
new generation of deep-draft vessels come
into operation.
a71 The SLPA will take delivery in May of
two ship-to-shore cranes and four RTGs
from Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery
Co (ZPMC), chairman Priyath Wickrama
said. The new cranes form part of an
equipment replacement programme at the
Jaya and Unity container terminals in Co-
lombo that includes six gantry cranes, four
mobile harbour cranes, 30 RTGs and 50
yard tractors ordered at a total cost of
around US$80M.
The new equipment is needed ur-
gently because the cranes operating at
SLPA’s container terminals are old and
subject to constant breakdowns that cause
delays in loading and unloading
vessels.The port’s customers have been
complaining about the delays, saying they
raise the cost of calling at Colombo.
Tauranga
gets ready
for a fight
The disagreement between the Port of
Tauranga and stevedore NZL Group over
the latter’s attempts, backed by Ports of
Auckland, to begin full container termi-
nal operations at Tauranga’s Sulphur
Point, looks to be heading for the courts.
NZL claims it holds successor rights
to those that P&O Ports relinquished in
2003 for a five-year period (see
WorldCargo News January 2009, p7). Ports
of Auckland said last month it had signed
up to be the leading customer of NZL’s
proposed “private terminal” in order to
expand its presence in the Bay of Plenty
region.
However, Tauranga believes NZL’s
claims are highly doubtful and sees no
benefit for the port from the proposal.
The two parties have since been unable
to agree on a new operating contract in
the port and NZL is no longer provid-
ing stevedoring or marshalling services
there.
a71 Tauranga has signed major customer
Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) to a long-
term operating agreement under which
CHH, through its logistics solutions arm,
Lodestar, has agreed to lease key facilities
in prime wharf locations on port land at
both Mount Maunganui and Tauranga.
The agreement includes the sale to Port
of Tauranga Ltd by CHH of a leasehold
interest in a 2.6 hectare Mount
Maunganui wharf store and also 1.8 hec-
tares of freehold land within the wharf
area of Mount Maunganui.
Tauranga says central to the new
agreement is a commitment by CHH
Lodestar to export an agreed annual
cargo volume through the port. “It also
paves the way to work together on a
number of key strategic initiatives,” CEO
Mark Cairns said.
“Partnerships of this nature allow for
rational long-term planning for both par-
ties and reduce the risks associated with
short-term speculative spending, a situ-
ation that is currently impacting on a
number of New Zealand ports,” he
added.
6 February 2009
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