ICTSI wins 30-year port concession in Croatia
Levent BAKIR
ICTSI wins 30-year port concession in Croatia
11/Mar/2011
International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) has won a 30-year contract for the management, operations and development of a container terminal in the Port of Rijeka, Croatia's principal seaport.
ICTSI and Luka Rijeka d.d. (Luka Rijeka), Croatia's largest marine services and logistics provider, signed a 30-year strategic partnership for the management of the Adriatic Gate Container Terminal (AGCT), a unit of Luka Rijeka and the existing terminal operator of the Bradjica Container Terminal in Rijeka. As part of the transaction, ICTSI purchased 51% shareholdings of the AGCT at €15m.
The AGCT is ICTSI's first venture into Croatia, and the largest Philippine investment in Southeast and Central Europe. AGCT plans to invest over €70m during the initial phase of the concession.
Bradjica Container Terminal, which will be named Adriatic Gate Container Terminal to bear the same name of the operating company, is undergoing an intensive modernisation programme under the Rijeka Gateway Project. The project aims to improve the port's competitiveness through the active participation of the private sector as well as link Rijeka and the Balkan region to international transport corridors. The project includes the extension of the terminal's south quay to 330 m and dredging of its draft to 14.5 m. The terminal's container yard is being expanded to accommodate 600,000 TEUs in annual capacity.
Aside from serving Croatian trade, the terminal is being primed to be the trading gateway for Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, south Poland, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, all of which are natural hinterlands of the Port of Rijeka. The port city is also the nearest port to the emerging economic centres of Central Europe: Zagreb, Budapest and Belgrade.http://www.transportintelligence.com/content/countries-regions/europe/
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Levent BAKIR
Deniz Ulaştırma İşletme Müh.