8/8/2019 APM Terminals Seeks to Invest Rs250 Cr in Capacity Expansion

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APM Terminals seeks to invest

Rs250 cr in capacity expansionThe move will help ease the capacity crunch at JN Port, which is operatingwell beyond its designed capacity

P. Manoj

y font si ze

Bangalore: The worlds third biggest container port operator, APM Terminals

International BV, will invest about Rs250 crore to buy equipment and expand

capacity at its container handling facility at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, or JN Port, in

Navi Mumbai.We are buying 13 new cranes and also paving 18 hectares of backup land that will

boost capacity at the terminal by another 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units

(TEUs) by the first quarter ofnext year, Arvind Bhatnagar, chief executive officerat Gateway Terminals India Pvt. Ltd told Mint. A TEU is an industry measure of

cargo containers.

Gateway Terminals is 74% owned by APM Terminals, the container terminal

operating unit ofDanish shipping and oil conglomerate AP Moeller-Maersk AS.

State-run rail hauler of containers, Container Corp. of India Ltd, or Concor, holds

the remaining 26%.

Bulk transport: A cargo handling terminal

at Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai,

the largest container port in India. Ashesh

Shah / Mint

The new equipment includes two cranes

currently being built at Chinas Shanghai

Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. Ltd, or ZPMC,

8/8/2019 APM Terminals Seeks to Invest Rs250 Cr in Capacity Expansion

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and another 11 being built at Swedens Kalmar Industries AB.

The container facility currently has 37 cranes that are used to lift containers. Some

of the new cranes will be able to lift two containers at the same time. This will

improve our productivity significantly, Bhatnagar said.

Gateway Terminals started operations in May 2006 at its 1.3 million TEU-capacity a

year terminal. The firm won the rights to develop and operate the new terminal for

30 years starting 2006 through competitive bidding. The new facility handled 1.29

million TEUsits designed capacityin the 12 months to March 2008. The new

equipment and yard space will help the company boost capacity to manage 1.8

million TEUs.

The logistic firms expansion will help the port expand at a time when it is facing an

acute capacity crunch. Indias biggest container port, handling some 60% of the

container cargo ofabout 7 million TEUs a year managed at all the ports in the

country, is operating well beyond its designed capacity.

The ports plan to raise capacity is delayed after it failed to finalize a contract

recently to deepen its channel to allow bigger ships to call. The expansion also

depends on the proposed dedicated railway freight corridor linking Mumbai with

northern India.

Container cargo at the state-owned port grew 23% to 4.06 million TEUs in the 12months to March. Its three container handling facilities are designed to handle only

3.6 million TEUs.

Besides Gateway Terminals, the other two container facilities are run separately by

the India arm ofDP World Ltd and the port authorities themselves.

There is a big demand for capacity creation at JN Port. And, its not easy to bridge

the gap between demand and supply. So, what is required is innovative ideas and

out-of-the-box thinking, Bhatnagar said.