APMT selects Willemen Groep for Tangier terminal construction

Scheduled to open in 2019, APM Terminals’ new facility at the Tanger-Med II port complex in Morocco will be the first automated container terminal in Africa, according to the port terminal operator arm of Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk.    APM Terminals (APMT) has selected four subsidiaries of the Willemen Groep – Aswebo, Aannemingen Van Wellen, Franki Construct and Cosimco – to handle construction of its new container terminal at the Tanger-Med II port complex in Morocco, the construction conglomerate said in a statement.
   Scheduled to open in 2019, the APM Terminals Tangier MedPort facility will be the first automated container terminal in Africa, featuring a quay length of 1,200 meters, according to the port terminal operator arm of Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk.
   APMT already operates an existing container terminal at Tanger-Med, and the new terminals are expected have an annual capacity for 5 million TEUs, increasing the port complex’s overall capacity to over 9 million TEUs.
   The development project consists of four lots or “packages,” all of which were assigned to the Willemen Groep, the company said.
   Package A consists of all road and sewerage works, construction of pipes for utilities, pavement and fence works, as well as the installation of the ARMG rails necessary to move containers in and out of the terminal automatically. Package B includes the construction of the 1,200-meter crane beam, on which the hoisting cranes will be placed, as well as all concrete works and formworks. Package C includes the construction of all utilities for the site, while Package D covers the construction of all buildings – both an office building and maintenance workshops – for the terminal.
   “To win this enormous project, a team of 35 people, spread across multiple companies within the group worked together on this project for four months,” said Willemen Groep President Johan Willemen. “The complementarity of the different companies of the Willemen Groep and the experience we have accumulated in port works, were crucial factors for the Employer APM Terminals to entrust the entire project to our group.”
   APMT last month announced an order for 12 remote-controlled ship-to-shore cranes and 32 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes from Shanghai-based equipment manufacturer ZPMC to handle containers at the new facility.