EGYPT PLANS TO ATTRACT PORT INVESTMENT: The Ministry of Transport is reported to have grand plans for the country’s ports and is looking to attract private investment to put them into practice.  The Ministry aims to privatise all the services and management of its ports to compete with Arab ports such as Dubai.  Port Said East is considered to be ‘the jewel in the crown’ in terms of infrastructure development, and the Port Authority has issued an international tender for consultancies to carry out feasibility studies on the project to develop it.

APMT TO RUN BAHRAIN TERMINALS: APM Terminals has been awarded a 25 year concession for the operation of Mina Salman and Khalifa bin Salman Ports in Bahrain.  Construction of the new port facility is expected to be completed by late 2008.  APM Terminals Bahrain is a joint Venture between APM Terminals (80%) and YBA Kanoo Holdings (20%).

7.  EUROPE

EUROPEAN SEAPORT POLICY: In June 2006, the European Commission published a Green Paper on the different aspects of a future Community maritime policy.  Learning from its defeat on the Ports Packages 1 and 2, the Commission of Transport together with the European Sea Ports Organisation will be organising 7 consultation workshops with the stakeholders of the port industry which, in the Commission’s view, will guarantee social dialogue in relation to port policy.  The first of these workshops is due take place in Antwerp in November 2006, with workshops in Hamburg, Lisbon, Valencia, Naples and Tallinn/Helsinki planned in the first six months of 2007.  It is understood that two weeks before each consultation workshop, the Commission will put forward a document which sets the agenda for the consultations.  The workshops cover the following themes:  port services; port financing; sustainable development; port-internal operation bottlenecks; and competition from non-EU ports, pro-active behaviour of port sector and positive image of seaports.  The ETF, ITF and their affiliates will participate in these meetings and will be prepared should a campaign against Ports Package 3 be necessary.

EUROGATE GOING FOR A SHARE IN HHLA: The Hamburg state government started its pan-European tender to sell up to 49.9% of HHLA on 6 November.  HHLA runs 3 container terminals at Hamburg port and is the number one stevedore there. It also has interests in Germany’s largest Baltic seaport, Lübeck, through Container Terminal Lübeck.  EUROGATE, HHLA’s main rival which already operates a container terminal in Hamburg port is making a bid for a large stake of the company.  EUROGATE is owned by Bremen-based BLG, which is still controlled by the Bremen state government and Eurokai.  Strong interest from other investors has also been reported.

MASSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS ANTICIPATED IN OLD EASTERN BLOC: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been reported to be actively backing infrastructure projects across the old Eastern bloc.  Ports and regional and hub airports in particular are targets of the 5 year strategy, approved at the EBRD annual general meeting in London earlier this year.  Up to 40% of the EBRD’s investment is envisaged for Russia and it has supported privatisation projects in Bulgaria, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
 
APMT AND SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL PORT GROUP OPEN DEEPWATER CONTAINER IN ZEEBRUGGE: APM Terminals has opened its new deepwater container terminal in Zeebrugge in which the largest container terminal operator in Shanghai, SPIG, holds a 40% stake. Maersk Line is calling at the terminal and APMT is in discussions with a number of other shipping lines.  Zeebrugge’s strength is said to be in the fact that it offers excellent connections to the same hinterland as Antwerp and Rotterdam and offers easier access than Antwerp, though much of its cargo still goes to Antwerp due to the preferences of shippers who already have established distribution centres there.

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN COMPETITION: The eastern Mediterranean hub ports of Gioia Tauro, Piraeus and Marsaxlokk in Malta are reported to have had a hard 18 months following the emergence of new competition from the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) operated by APMT.  Other Egyptian ports including Port Said and Damietta have also won extra Asian transhipment business while Turkish ports such as Ambarli have started handling more transhipment business destined for ports in the Black Sea.  Gioia Tauro is said to be the biggest loser with the opening of SCCT.  Maersk has moved a significant amount of its transhipment volume for the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea to SCCT.  Its takeover of P&O Nedlloyd is reported to have speeded this up.  Nevertheless, Contship Italia which controls Medcentre Container Terminal in Gioia Tauro is confident that things are improving – monthly volumes from August 2006 have been higher than in 2005 - and that there will continue to be a need for the intensive use of transhipment services to distribute cargo to the over 60 ports in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.  Meanwhile there are plans to privatise part of Piraeus (along with another Greek port, Thessaloniki).  The Chinese COSCO Group has expressed confidence over winning the concessions if an open tender is held.

Port Industry Update is available in a number
of languages.  Please see the ITF website:
http://www.itfglobal.org/ports/bulletin.cfm

PIU contact: Sharon James, Dockers’ Assistant
Secretary (james_sharon@itf.org.uk; tel: +44
2079409310; fax: +44 2079409275)