China Shipping invests in APMT Zeebrugge

   China Shipping Terminal has signed a memorandum of understanding with to purchase a 24-percent share of APM Terminals Zeebrugge.
   The transaction is scheduled to be finalized by the end of June 2013.
   APM Terminals currently holds a 75-percent majority share in APM Terminals Zeebrugge N.V., with the Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) having acquired a 25 percent share in the facility in 2010.
   Shanghai-based China Shipping Container Lines, established by the China Shipping Group in 1997, is now the world’s 9th-largest shipping company, with 141 vessels, representing an overall capacity of 572,000 TEUs. China Shipping Terminal Development has holdings in 13 port facilities in mainland China, as well as shares in terminals in the ports of Los Angeles and Seattle, and Damietta, Egypt. Total throughput, measured by equity share for China Shipping Terminal, was 7.8 million TEUs in 2011.
   “We are very proud that China Shipping Terminal demonstrates so much confidence in our operations” said APM Terminals Zeebrugge Managing Director Mark Geilenkirchen in a statement, adding “this will certainly lead to a stronger position for our terminal in the Le Havre-Hamburg range”.
   Belgium’s Port of Zeebrugge is the 5th–busiest in the North Europe port range, with about 2.2 million TEUs handled in 2012, and is situated at the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt and Meuse Rivers. APM Terminals Zeebrugge’s throughput in 2012 was 380,000 TEUs. – Chris Dupin