By Sharar Nayel, Asia Correspondent
APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Danish shipping and logistics giant Maersk, has begun pre-construction activities for a new container terminal at Laldia, near Bangladesh’s Chittagong seaport.
According to officials, the initial work began last week with marine subsoil boring and a topographic survey. A jack-up barge has been deployed inside the Karnaphuli Channel, near the proposed site, to carry out the survey and boring operations.
The Laldia Container Terminal is being developed on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, with 100% foreign direct investment. After operating the terminal for 20 years, APM Terminals will hand it over to the Chittagong Port Authority.
Maersk Line currently handles about 30% of Bangladesh’s import-export cargo, and the company plans to use the new terminal primarily for its own shipments.
Once completed, the terminal will feature a 450-metre quay, a berth depth of 10.5 metres, and accommodate vessels with a draught of up to 9.5 metres. It will have an annual handling capacity of approximately 770,000 TEUs.
A.P. Moller-Maersk is expected to invest around US$400 million in the terminal’s development.
In January last year, the Chittagong Port Authority and APM Terminals agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the terminal project. Later, in June, the PPP Authority appointed the International Finance Corporation (IFC)—the private sector arm of the World Bank—as the project’s transaction advisor.
According to the PPP Authority, the main goal of the Laldia Container Terminal project is to increase the container handling capacity of the Chittagong port and to strengthen Bangladesh’s overall port logistics infrastructure.
