PSA said to have won Ecuador terminal deal
PSA International looks to have bagged its first South American terminal after Ecuador's Guayaquil port authority awarded a 20-year concession to a strategic alliance between the Philippine's International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) and PSA.
A spokesperson from the Manila-based ICTSI told BT the group had been informed of the successful tender to run the container and multipurpose terminals at the Guayaquil port and that the agreement is likely to be inked sometime in May.
The spokesperson also confirmed that ICTSI has been in talks with PSA regarding a strategic alliance at the port, but was not able to give details of that agreement other than to indicate no other foreign or local partner is involved.
A PSA Corporate spokesman declined to comment when queried yesterday.
Ecuador aims to make the Guayaquil port - already the 11th largest in Latin America - one of South America's top ports through expansion and modernisation, as the country seeks to tap growing cargo flows out of China and within the region.
ICTSI is understood to be investing some US$150 million to upgrade the port.
Currently the port handles 70 per cent of Ecuador's total import-export cargo and 93 per cent of its inbound-outbound container cargo.
The current container terminal facilities include four berths of 600 feet each, handling nearly 450,000 TEUs annually.
The port also has a multi-purpose terminal with five berths and a bulk terminal. ICTSI agreed to pay the port authority royalties of US$10.43 per container handled, some 73 per cent higher than the US$6 minimum set in the bidding rules, according to a report in Business News Americas.
The bid is also significantly higher than what Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings recently agreed to for a 30-year concession at the Port of Manta to build and operate the Terminales Internacionales de Ecuador container terminal.
That terminal, scheduled to be operational this year, will have an annual capacity of one million TEUs following an investment of about US$460 million.
A total of 10 bidders expressed interest in the Guayaquil port project, with seven eventually being prequalified but only one remaining until recently.
A consortium comprising an Ecuadorian transport firm, two Chilean companies and German terminal operator HHLA Container Terminal allegedly withdrew from the contest citing lack of transparency.
This had threatened a possible scrapping of the tender which would have delayed the awarding of the concession by as much as one year.
ICTSI - which has port projects in the Philippines, Brazil, Poland, Syria, Madagascar, China and Japan - raised US$142 million last week through the issue of secondary shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
A spokesperson from the Manila-based ICTSI told BT the group had been informed of the successful tender to run the container and multipurpose terminals at the Guayaquil port and that the agreement is likely to be inked sometime in May.
The spokesperson also confirmed that ICTSI has been in talks with PSA regarding a strategic alliance at the port, but was not able to give details of that agreement other than to indicate no other foreign or local partner is involved.
A PSA Corporate spokesman declined to comment when queried yesterday.
Ecuador aims to make the Guayaquil port - already the 11th largest in Latin America - one of South America's top ports through expansion and modernisation, as the country seeks to tap growing cargo flows out of China and within the region.
ICTSI is understood to be investing some US$150 million to upgrade the port.
Currently the port handles 70 per cent of Ecuador's total import-export cargo and 93 per cent of its inbound-outbound container cargo.
The current container terminal facilities include four berths of 600 feet each, handling nearly 450,000 TEUs annually.
The port also has a multi-purpose terminal with five berths and a bulk terminal. ICTSI agreed to pay the port authority royalties of US$10.43 per container handled, some 73 per cent higher than the US$6 minimum set in the bidding rules, according to a report in Business News Americas.
The bid is also significantly higher than what Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings recently agreed to for a 30-year concession at the Port of Manta to build and operate the Terminales Internacionales de Ecuador container terminal.
That terminal, scheduled to be operational this year, will have an annual capacity of one million TEUs following an investment of about US$460 million.
A total of 10 bidders expressed interest in the Guayaquil port project, with seven eventually being prequalified but only one remaining until recently.
A consortium comprising an Ecuadorian transport firm, two Chilean companies and German terminal operator HHLA Container Terminal allegedly withdrew from the contest citing lack of transparency.
This had threatened a possible scrapping of the tender which would have delayed the awarding of the concession by as much as one year.
ICTSI - which has port projects in the Philippines, Brazil, Poland, Syria, Madagascar, China and Japan - raised US$142 million last week through the issue of secondary shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange.