French container shipping company CMA CGM and PSA Singapore Terminals (PSA) have confirmed that they will establish form a joint venture company CMA CGM-PSA Lion Terminal Pte. Ltd. (CPLT) to operate and use four mega container berths in Singapore.
CPLT, which will use berths at the latest expansion of Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4, will start operations from the second half of 2016.
With an estimated annual handling capacity of over 3 Mteu, the joint venture’s facilities will be used to provide long-term terminal services for CMA CGM and its liner shipping affiliates.
CMA CGM-PSA Lion Terminal will be owned in proportions of 49% and 51%, respectively.
“It is a significant step, demonstrating the ongoing importance of Singapore to our strategy, and delivering on our commitment to making Singapore the Asian hub for the group,” Rodolphe Saadé, Vice Chairman of CMA CGM Group.
The move to set up the terminal joint venture with CMA CGM comes on the back of the Singapore Government’s attempts to attract some of the transhipment volumes that have been lost to the competing Malaysian ports of Port Kelang and Tanjung Pelepas, Alphaliner earlier said.
PSA’s share of the South East Asia container transhipment volume has fallen from 89% in the year 2000 to only 62% in 2015, while Singapore’s overall container throughput has fallen by -7.8% in the first four months of this year, following a -8.7% loss last year, whereas its key competitors gained ground.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.