COSCO and PSA sign Singapore’s first dedicated terminal deal

COSCO and PSA sign Singapore’s first dedicated terminal deal    COSCO Pacific, an affiliate of China’s largest shipping group, has signed the first dedicated container berth agreement covering the port of Singapore with PSA Corp., the owner and exclusive operator of the port.
   COSCO and PSA have signed heads of agreement in Boao, China, to establish a joint venture called COSCO-PSA Terminal Private Ltd. COSCO Pacific will hold a 49-percent interest in the venture.
   The joint venture will manage and operate two berths of the Pasir Panjang terminal in Singapore. Until now, PSA has operated all the containerterminals of Singapore on a common-user basis, and resisted requests by shipping lines keen to operate their own dedicated terminal in the port.
   Initially, COSCO-PSA Terminal will manage and operate an existing berth with a quay length of 360 meters, a total area of about 114,000 square meters and a water depth alongside of up to 15 meters. Its designed annual container handling capacity is 500,000 TEUs. In a second phase, scheduled before 2008, the joint venture will manage and operate a second berth.
   Wei Jiafu, group president and chief executive officer of the COSCO group and chairman of COSCO Pacific, said that COSCO-PSA Terminal is the result of a global strategic partnership between COSCO and PSA.
   COSCO Pacific is already a large container terminal operator in mainland China.
   “The joint venture is COSCO Pacific’s first overseas port investment,” COSCO said. It will provide the company with “a solid foundation to further expand fast-growing terminal business in Asia,” it added.