Hong Kong: Danish container giant AP Moeller-Maersk APM is to buy a 33.9% stake in Cosco Pacific subsidiary Cosco Ports (Nansha) for an undisclosedprice. The stake will give APM an indirect 19% holding in Guangzhou South ChinaOceangate Terminal, a CY4bn project to build and operate a 6-berth containerterminal at Nansha Port with an annual capacity of up to 4.2m teu. CoscoPorts has already committed around $95m to the project in which it has a 56%holding. The rest is owned by Guangzhou Port Group.
The move comes just a month after Cosco Pacific and APM announced a jointventure with Tianjin Port Development Holdings to build a CY3.6bn terminalat Tianjin in which the two will hold a 30% stake each at a cost of aroundCY378m. The three-berth facility is expected to be in operation by 2008.At present, COSCO has 34 dock berths in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao,Shenzhen, the US and Italy, with annual throughput up to over 13 millioncontainers. According to Drewry Shipping Consultants's latest ranking ofglobal terminal operators, COSCO is the 8th largest container terminaloperator in the world.APM Terminals, with corporate headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, isterminal operator with operations at over 40 terminals. The facilitiesgenerate a throughput of more than 20 million TEU in 2004, and servicesabout 60 leading container shipping lines.
Cosco Pacific and APM are already partners in a number of other Chineseports and projects such as Shanghai, Qindao, Dalian and Shenzhen. (22/08/06)
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