Ahmedabad, July 04, 2014: Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd, India’s largest port developer and part of Adani Group, today announced that it has signed an agreement with the CMA CGM Group of France to develop a new common user Container Terminal at Mundra Port. This will be the 4th Container Terminal in Mundra capable of handling 1.3 million TEUs annually.
Following this announcement, the construction phase will be initiated immediately and completion will be in a record 24 months. The project comprises of design and construction of a 650 meters terminal along with 27 hectares of back area with a water depth of 16.5 meters.
This world class terminal will initially have four units of 65 tonne capacity of Rail Mounted Quay Cranes capable of handling 18,000 TEU vessels and Super Post and Ultra Large Container Vessels. These cranes would be by far the largest and first of its kind in India. The yard equipment will include twelve 41 tonne lift rubber tyred gantry (RTG) cranes which will accommodate seven rows of containers and one operational lane.
This 50:50 JV partnership is yet another major step by APSEZ to continue to rapidly expand its container terminals footprint across India’s coastline and further augments APSEZ’s existing two container handling locations at Mundra and Hazira along with its already announced two container terminals to be constructed at Ennore in Chennai and Dhamra in Odisha. It will allow Adani Ports to fulfill its stated vision of handling 200 million metric tonnes of cargo well before the year 2020.
For CMA CGM, Mundra Container Terminal is the Group’s first port investment in India, and demonstrates its ambition to further increase its presence in this strategic and fast-developing country. CMA CGM is present in India since 1984. With around 500 staff members and 24 offices, CMA CGM is calling 9 ports in India, and offers to its Indian customers more than 8 direct shipping services connecting India to the rest of the world. This new investment adds to the 27 container terminals that CMA CGM Group has today in its portfolio, and is a key step in its strategy to further expand its position in port operations.
This partnership is expected to significantly benefit both companies in accelerating the ramp up of export, import and transshipment container volumes in India.
As per the agreement, the transaction is subject to approvals from the regulators as maybe required including the competition commission of India, MoCI and the GMB.