Corpus Christi seeks bids for container facility

Corpus Christi seeks bids for container facility The Port of Corpus Christi Authority wants to get into container shipping in a big way.
   On Thursday, it asked companies for expressions of interest in leasing and developing a large new container facility. The agency issued a “request for qualifications” from companies interested in developing the terminal on 1,100 acres it owns on the northeast side of Corpus Christi Bay.
   Corpus Christi is the seventh-largest U.S. port in gross tonnage cargo, but virtually all of that is liquid and dry bulk cargo.
   In the request the agency said its “primary objective” is developing the 1,100 acres into a container shipping terminal that, because of its location and design, will strengthen the weak links in shippers’ and ocean carriers’ respective supply chains at a competitive price, while offering the latest in design, efficiency and security.”
   The terminal, the authority said, would provide additional container capacity for Texas, Northern Mexico, and middle American trade routes, and be a “rational solution to the problem of congestion at existing container terminals.”
   The agency said it is willing to negotiate a lease for 30 years or more to a private operator, and that the port has no intention to operate the terminal on its own.
   The request issued by the port estimates that it would cost $450 million to $600 million to develop the terminal, which it has dubbed the La Quinta Trade Gateway Container Terminal.
   It believes the terminal, if construction began this year, could open in 2010 and that cargo could grow from about 400,000 TEUs in 2011 to 1 million or more by 2026.