PSA, Afken win 36-year Mersin Port concession

PSA, Afken win 36-year Mersin Port concession Mersin International Port Management Inc. (MIP), a joint venture of Singapore-based PSA International and Turkey’s Akfen Holding A.S, has been awarded the full operational rights of Mersin Port until 2043 following a bid of $755 million.
   The 880,000-TEU-capacity port was previously owned by the Turkish National Railways Authority (TCDD) and has four container wharfs, five quay cranes and two mobile port cranes. It occupies an area of 110 hectares and has a wharf length of 870 meters (2,854 feet) and water depth of 14 meters (45.9 feet), large enough for post-Panamax vessels to dock.
   Almost 5,000 vessels call at the port annually, which had a volume of about 17 million tons in 2006.
   “The port has proven to be an ideal transit port for trade with the Middle East owing to its position along the East Mediterranean Coast of Turkey and its good railway and road connections,” said PSA, the world’s second-largest container terminal operator, in a statement.
   Eddie Teh, PSA’s group chief executive officer, at Saturday’s signing ceremony in Ankara, said: “Today marks a key milestone for PSA as we look forward, together with our partner, Akfen Holdings, to turn Mersin Port into a major international port servicing the East Mediterranean region.
   “For PSA, our investment in Mersin International Port is our third single largest investment outside of Singapore, and this demonstrates our strong confidence in the country,” Teh said.
   Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port Holdings, the largest of the global terminal operators, headed a consortium that won a 49-year concession for Turkey’s Port of Izmir with a reported bid of about $1.3 billion.