COSCO Pacific buys 20% stake in Suez Canal Container Terminal

COSCO Pacific buys 20% stake in Suez Canal Container Terminal COSCO Pacific Ltd. has completed the purchase of a 20 percent equity interest in the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) at Port Said in Egypt.
   The Chinese terminal operator acquired the shares on Oct. 30 from Egyptian International Container Terminal S.A., a subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk. The deal was first announced at the end of 2005.
   SCCT operates the Port Said East Port in Egypt. Operational since October 2004, the 600,000-square-meter site has four deepwater berths capable of handling 2.55 million TEUs each year with expansion set to double that figure. It has a quay length of 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) and a depth alongside of 16.5 meters (54.1 feet). Throughput this year is expected to reach 1.75 million TEUs.
   The major shareholders in SCCT are A.P. Moller-Maersk’s APM Terminals (55 percent), COSCO Pacific (20 percent), the Suez Canal Authority (10 percent), Egyptian Private Sector (10 percent), and National Bank of Egypt (5 percent).
   The total investment in the first two phases of development of SCCT amounts to $730 million.
   “The senior management of COSCO Pacific strongly believes that the investment in SCCT will further strengthen the company's terminal portfolio in Mediterranean so as to provide comprehensive terminal services to our customers,” COSCO Pacific said in a statement.
   SCCT Managing Director Jens Floe said: 'Our port has successfully attracted an important new partner in COSCO Pacific, and added new liner services through COSCO (Container Lines), who will become the third liner customer of SCCT in 2008, joining our clients CMA CGM and Maersk Line. The addition of COSCO's liner services into the Egyptian Mediterranean port market is an important step in generating new business for Egypt.'
   'The new agreement will increase SCCT's container handling volumes and open the door to new Chinese business in the region, strengthening SCCT as the largest terminal operator in Egypt and market leader in the East Mediterranean.”