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New gate system for
ICTSI Subic terminal
Asciano mulls Patrick sale
“Asciano has selected a small
group of parties to take through
to the final stage of the
monetisation process,” manag-
Asciano is not necessarily averse pared to the corresponding period the number of vehicles handled. ing director Mark Rowsthorn
to the partial or full sale of its of the last financial year. Overall bulk and general volumes said. “As expected, the first
Patrick Container Ports and The Patrick Container Ports increased by 7.5%, with stronger phase of the monetisation proc-
stevedoring businesses, according business continued to enjoy posi- fertiliser, woodchip and other ess has resulted in significant
to analysts claiming an insight into tive volume growth during No- commodity volumes offsetting interest, reflecting the quality
the company’s thinking. vember, albeit at a slower rate than weaker steel volumes. and strategic value of our busi-
While recent emphasis has was achieved during the Septem- PN’s intermodal volumes de- nesses. This provides a solid plat-
been on the probable sale of Pa- ber quarter. Overall container lifts clined slightly during the five form for taking the process to
cific National (PN)’s coal haul- across all of Patrick’s facilities in- months to November 2008 but this the next stage.”
age business to relieve the par- creased by 3.7% for the five was more than offset by the impact a71 Asciano is reviewing its par-
ent company’s debt burden (see months to November although of improved cost management and ticipation in the A$7B Saudi
WorldCargo News November there was a slight decline in mar- greater capacity utilisation, result- Land-bridge after a Saudi deci-
2008, p27) commentators said gins within the division. ing in an increase in margins for sion to re-bid the project. The
ABN Amro’s shortlist of propos- Patrick’s Auto, Bulk & Gen- the business. PN’s coal business company is a member of the
als presented to the Asciano eral business continues to achieve continued to perform strongly, with Tarabot consortium, selected as
board on December 19 “in- above-budget results driven by a net tonne kilometres increasing by preferred bidder in April 2008
cluded a much wider range of sharp increase in motor vehicle 11.1% compared to the previous for the development, which will
possibilities.” storage revenue, together with corresponding period. connect Riyadh with the ma-
In a late-year update on op- strong growth in bulk and gen- Asciano said it had received a jor port cities of Jeddah and
erating performance and strate- eral port volumes, primarily number of bids “in respect of a Dammam. In November, Saudi
gic initiatives, Asciano said earn- driven by improved agricultural potential monetisation” of the authorities directed that all of
International Container Terminal The new gate complex at SBICT uses
ings were in line with budget commodity volumes. Motor ve- PN coal business and had also the original shortlisted bidders
Services, Inc (ICTSI)’s subsidiary
ICTSI’s own GTSGates gate module
and expectations. Preliminary, hicle storage volumes for the five been approached “with a number for the project be given the
Subic Bay International Terminal
unaudited earnings before inter- months ended November in- of alternative proposals relating to opportunity to submit revised
Corp (SBITC) recently rolled out issued to a truck driver as well as
est, tax, depreciation and amor- creased by 55% compared to last other business units and/or alter- proposals to reflect changed
a new software system aimed at an equipment interchange receipt
tisation increased by 6.5% com- year, offsetting a slight decline in nate structures.” global circumstances.
boosting operational efficiency at (EIR), a document containing the
the gates at the freeport’s New transfer of container from one car-
Container Terminal-1. rier to another, upon gate out.
ICTSI developed in-house the GTS is an application suite for
Chennai invites bids
rently handles around 1M TEU/
year and the PSA-Sical terminal
Liberia
will increase capacity to 2M TEU.
GTSGates gate module, which is container terminals. It uses high
part of the terminal’s existing resolution colour graphic work-
Graphical Tracking System (GTS), stations with a Windows interface
for mega terminal
The main channel and the in-
ner harbour at Chennai are also
launches
being dredged at a cost of
for SBITC. It automatically gen- to support interactive, real-time US$29.3M.
erates container yard locations for modules for planning and moni- Chennai Port Trust (CPT) has in- volves the development of a new “The mega terminal will be a
Monrovia
trucks entering the terminal and toring of container terminal vited global requests for qualifi- outer harbour with deeper draft major initiative in achieving the
can process multiple movements of movements. cation (RFQs) for the construc- to accommodate the latest con- long-term vision of Chennai be-
containers both import and export, All planning and control func- tion and operation of India’s first tainer vessels,” CPT chairman K coming India’s major container hub
tender
during any truck visit, and is linked tions for the yard or vessel opera- mega container terminal on a 30- Suresh said. port,” said Suresh.
to GTS’ yard allocation module. tion are carried out on the GTS year build-operate-transfer “The selected developer of the To cope with the increased The government of Liberia has
The gate module, says ICTSI, graphical planning screen. Ancil- (BOT) basis. terminal will get a licence to de- box traffic, a 19km, four-lane el- published a request for the expres-
allows SBITC to utilise multiple lary support programmes are used The terminal will be the third sign, finance, develop and operate evated expressway will be built sion of interest (RFEOI) in the
lanes of the terminal gate, which for gate processing, movement up- at the port after the DPW-oper- the facility on a revenue-sharing from the port to the national high- development and operation of a
can be switched functionally at dates and master data updates. ated Chennai Container Terminal basis with us. This is the first time way network. The highway will freeport at Monrovia. The Libe-
any time according to the flow of These modules, when used to- (CCT) and a new facility being that a container terminal in India take about three years to complete rian government hopes to “im-
traffic. gether, facilitate management of built by the PSA-Sical consortium, will have a quay of two kilome- and will cost US$338M. prove the overall performance of
A truck instruction document vessel and yard planning and con- which will open this year. tres,” he said. The port also plans to set up a the port and therewith facilitat-
(TID), which has the container troller functions in the terminal, The third terminal is part of a The terminal, with a draft of dry port at the end of the express- ing the Liberian economy for fur-
yard location, may be printed and says ICTSI. US$1.5B project that also in- 20m, will be built on reclaimed land way. “In the future, Chennai port ther growth”, by offering a con-
at a cost of US$757M and will have will only be a loading/unloading cession to a private sector opera-
an annual handling capacity of 5M facility and containers will be dis- tor for a modern multi-purpose
TEU, increasing the port’s total ca- patched to their respective locations terminal that offers container and
pacity to 7M TEU/year. CCT cur- from the dry port,” Suresh said. general cargo services.
Interested parties are requested
to contact the Port Sector Reform
Secretariat in Monrovia, with all
expressions of interest due by 26
February. A shortlist for the bid-
ding process will then be drawn
up and the new operator selected
by the end of this year. Full details
are available from www.portreform.
gov.lr
Under the terms of the govern-
ment’s port landlord plans, the re-
structured state-owned National
Port Authority will retain owner-
ship of all port assets, plan the long
term development of the port and
remain responsible for all dredging.
The selected private operator
The ZHEN HUA 26 is seen arriving at the Port of Tacoma this month carrying
will be responsible for the devel-
two fully erect ship-to-shore container cranes for Washington United Terminals
opment and maintenance of the
(WUT), the Tacoma home of Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui OSK
Lines. Built by ZPMC, the superpost-Panamax cranes measure 273ft at
port superstructure, the manage-
the apex and can service a 24-wide deck stow, making them among the
ment of the terminal, the acquisi-
world’s largest. A third similar crane is due to be delivered to WUT in 2010
tion and maintenance of cargo
to join the four existing 18-container-wide outreach cranes already in service
handling equipment and provid-
at the terminal. The two smaller remained on board the vessel for delivery to ing cargo handling services. In
Puerto de Coronel in Chile following the Tacoma discharge particular, the government has
identified the reconstruction of
PSA says Tuticorin
Marginal Wharf as a key priority.
Although Monrovia is by far
the most important of Liberia’s
operations unviable
three ports at present, handling
95% of all cargo, it has severely
deteriorated over many years and
PSA-Sical Terminals says opera-
der held by local partner Sical received little investment during
tions have become unviable at
Logistics. Annual capacity is the country’s civil war from 1990
India’s fourth largest container ter-
450,000 TEU. until 2003. However, the country
minal at Tuticorin port in Tamil
The new rates imposed by the has now begun to recover and
Nadu state after the regulator
Tariff Authority for Major Ports under President Ellen Johnson-
slashed tariffs by 34%.
(TAMP), which came after PSA- Sirleaf, a former World Bank
After the latest cut, revenues
Sical sought to raise tariffs by 30%, economist, a good start has been
will not be sufficient to cover op-
will remain in force until Decem- made on rehabilitating Liberia’s
erating costs and royalty payments
ber 31, 2011. shattered infrastructure.
to the government. Whatever
This is the third time the Average annual economic
profit we have made in the past
regulator has cut tariffs since the growth of 8.5% since 2003 has
10 years will be wiped out by this
terminal opened 10 years ago, but boosted cargo throughput at
decision,” a company official said.
the first two reduction orders Monrovia by 40% over the past five
PSA International has a 57.5%
were not implemented because of years, prompting the government
stake in the Tuticorin Container
stay orders from the Chennai to make the rehabilitation of the
Terminal (TCT), with the remain-
High Court. port one of its main concerns.
8 January 2009
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