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2 Singaporean firm to run Gwadar
port By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
QUETTA, Pakistan - Port of Singapore
Authority International (PSAI) has been selected
as the operator of Gwadar port in the southwestern
Pakistani province of Balochistan. The selection
was made at a board meeting of the Gwadar Port
Implementation Authority (GPIA) on Friday.
Unanimous consent was given for the selection of
PSAI and a committee was set up to hold
negotiations with the port operators after getting
the government's
approval.
Of the four
companies that were pre-qualified by the GPIA,
only two turned up on December 4, the final date
fixed for submitting bids. The selection had been
made after evaluation of the financial strength
and strategic partnership potential of the
consortiums that submitted offers to the GPIA.
PSAI is worth US$12 billion and has a performance
record of more than 40 million container boxes per
annum.
Gwadar port project has been the
victim of lethargy and an unprofessional approach,
but picked up pace in the last quarter of this
year. The GPIA developed a new vision under which
a "revenue-sharing model" has been conceived.
Gwadar port would be given on lease for 40
years on a build-operate-transfer basis. The port
operator would have to run different operations -
port and terminal operations, marine services and
a free economic zone. In the past, the government
fixed two dates for inauguration of the strategic
Gwadar port but could not meet them, and this was
largely because most of the affairs of the port
were run by non-professionals.
GPIA had
called for new expressions of interest (EoIs) and
requested proposals for Gwadar port operations in
October, announcing the draft of the approach
channel and berths of the port as 14.5 meters.
Within four days, the GPIA had approved four
companies out of a total of eight that had
submitted EoIs. These were PSAI; Globe Marine
Services, Saudi Arabia; Pakistan International
Container Terminal, Karachi; and Westport,
Malaysia. The tender committee short-listed the
companies that fulfilled their criteria.
Gwadar port is going to be the third
deepsea port in Pakistan after Karachi and Port
Qasim. As compared with Karachi and Port Qasim,
which operate on a royalty basis, the selection of
the port operator for Gwadar is on the basis of a
gross-revenue-sharing formula. Hence the operator
will have to set up three different companies to
look after various activities at the Gwadar port,
including cargo operation, marine operation and
the free economic zone. The first multi-purpose
terminal at Gwadar has been completed, with a quay
length of 600 meters and a depth of 14.5 meters,
with a sizable backup area. Cranes, other terminal
equipment and tugs have been acquired.
Unlike Karachi and Port Qasim, which
thrive on captive cargoes, Gwadar Port, which is
on main shipping lanes, will completely depend on
transshipment cargo. While hub ports of the
Persian Gulf are on the western side of Gwadar,
Sri Lanka and Indian ports are on its eastern
side. Gwadar is strategically located outside the
sensitive area of the Strait of Hormuz, a major
conduit for global oil supplies in the region. It
will have to compete internationally to get its
rightful share of the world's cargo. This requires
efficiency on the part of port operators and the
installation of modern equipment.
PSAI is
a global leader in the ports and terminals
business. It operates 20 port projects in 11
countries, namely Singapore, Belgium, Brunei,
China, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,
Portugal, South Korea and Thailand. In 2005, it
handled 41.18 million 20-foot-equivalent units
(TEUs) of containers at all its ports around the
world, including 22.28 million TEUs in Singapore.
At present, the PSAI operations are managed on a
network of more than 300 advanced servers, which
have given PSAI the edge to achieve greater levels
of productivity, translating to higher
efficiencies for its customers.
PSA
Singapore Terminals is a flagship terminal of PSA
International. It is also the world's busiest
transshipment hub, handling about one-fifth of the
world's container transshipment throughput, and 6%
of global container throughput. It is also the
world's largest refrigerated container (reefer)
port, with about 4,000
