ICTSI breaks into stevedoring mart of Australia

Global port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is seeking to capture a share of the Australian stevedoring market as part of an ongoing expansion program to fasttrack the rebuilding of its overseas network.

ICTSI has formed a joint venture company called Australian International Container Terminals Ltd. (AICTL) with Australian-based Anglo Ports Pty Ltd. to pursue port opportunities in Australia.

The new firm will have ICTSI chairman Enrique Razon as chairman of the five-member board.

ICTSI said AICTL’s primary targets would be Sydney’s Port Botany, the Port of Melbourne, and the Port of Fremantle in Western Australia.

The cargo operator said it is willing to invest more than $200 million as a "first phase" investment wherever it can secure port land.

Australia’s stevedoring market is currently dominated by two companies — Patrick Corp. Ltd. and P&O.

ICTSI earlier won a 20-year container handling concession for the Port of Toamasina, Madagascar, which handles over 90 percent of Madagascar’s container traffic.

ICTSI said it will introduce its world-class container handling facility, management and operating expertise to Toamasina as well as undertake key investments in order to substantially upgrade container-handling service in Madagascar.

Apart from this, ICTSI is bidding for at least two more container port operations overseas as it seeks to build a strong competitive foothold in the international market. It already submitted bids for container port operations in Yemen and Nigeria, which the company considers good sites for expansion since they are geographically located.

Razon said ICTSI will also make additional investments in its existing port terminals abroad, including the Suape Container Terminal as part of efforts to make it the preferred gateway port in northeastern Brazil.

"We have programmed substantial investments for our existing terminals, and have a full pipeline of promising prospects for new terminal concessions and acquisitions," Razon said.

ICTSI sold seven of its overseas port operations in 2001 to raise funds to settle debts, and it is now trying to rebuild its foreign port operations.

The company has since acquired and started port operations in Poland and Brazil, and will begin operating two container terminals in Japan’s Naha port in January 2006 when all other approvals have been obtained. ICTSI’s 60 percent owned subsidiary Naha International Container Terminal Inc.has been designated by the Japanese port authority as private operator of the Naha Port Public International Container Terminal for 10 years.

Located in the East China Sea, the Naha port handles more than 50 shipping routes and is ideally situated to serve vessels with cargo bound for the US and Europe.

ICTSI is one of the pioneers of container terminal management and operation on an international basis having been involved in this activity since the early 1990s.