Cosco Pacific acquires stakes in Haicang Terminal and Suez Venture

Hong Kong: Cosco Pacific has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cosco Ports has signed an agreement with Xiamen Haicang Investment General to own a 70% stake in their new $532m joint venture company, Xiamen Yuanhai Container Terminal. The new company will set up and operate a 2.8 m teu terminal with four berths at China's Haicang port in Xiamen (Haicang Terminal) ?" expected to offer 50% of total production by early 2009.  

In a statement, the company said, "Our investment in Haicang Terminal will accelerate our development plan to establish a terminal network along the Western Coast of the Taiwan Straits.  Haicang Terminal is located in Xiamen- the seventh busiest port in China... that is expected to become a major international container transhipment hub along the south eastern coast in China.  In  2010, Xiamen's throughput is expected to reach about 8m teu."

Cosco Pacific has also completed the purchase of a 20% stake in a Suez Canal port venture from a unit of A.P. Moeller-Maersk, reports Bloomberg. The total investment in the first two phases of the Port Said, Egypt venture will be $730m, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. The venture, which is expected to handle 1.75m teu this year, has an annual capacity of 2.55m teu- a figure set to double upon completion of expansion plans, the company added, without providing a timeframe.  [09/11/07]