By Joe Bavier
ABIDJAN, March 23 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast has named a consortium of French industrial groups Bollore and Bouygues and Denmark’s Maersk as the preferred bidder to operate a new container terminal, an official for one of the companies said.
The West African nation plans to open a second container terminal in the commercial capital Abidjan – one of Africa’s busiest ports – as part of a drive to make up ground lost to competitors during a decade-long political crisis.
“This new terminal project will lift the infrastructure of Abidjan for the benefit of the country and its population,” said Peder Sondergaard, Africa and Middle East CEO for Maersk’s APM Terminals.
“We look forward to working towards developing the project together with the port authority,” he said in a statement.
The new terminal will require an investment of 300 billion CFA francs ($594.41 million) over a concession term of 21 years, the statement said.
New construction will include 35 hectares (86 acres) of yard along 1,100 metres of quays and will be able to accommodate ships with a capacity of up to 8,000 20-foot containers (TEU). It is scheduled to open in 2016.
The second terminal will have a transit capacity of 1.5 million TEU per year, adding to the port’s current capacity of 800,000 containers.
Once a regional economic powerhouse, Ivory Coast is emerging from a decade of stagnation caused by a 2002 civil war that split the country in two.
The political crisis ended with a second brief armed conflict in 2011. The economy is once again growing, buoyed by heavy investment to renew long-neglected infrastructure.
Growth topped 8.5 percent in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund, following a 4.7 percent contraction the year before.
The bulk of top grower Ivory Coast’s cocoa exports pass through Abidjan, as do around 60 percent of goods entering and exiting land-locked Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Bollore subsidiary Bollore Africa Logistics has held the concession for Abidjan’s existing container terminal since 2004. It announced plans in October to spend up to $79 million by 2015 to double the terminal’s capacity.
($1 = 504.6990 CFA francs) (Editing by James Jukwey)
(c) 2013 Thomson Reuters, Click For Restrictions
Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.
Join the 108,755 members that receive our newsletter.
Have a news tip? Let us know.
The frequency of cable incidents in the Baltic Sea has been "exceptional" in recent years, but state actors have more effective ways of performing underwater sabotage than by dragging anchors, Finland's intelligence service chief said.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to decide on Monday what levels of tariffs he will impose early on Tuesday on Canada and Mexico amid last-minute negotiations over border security and efforts to halt the inflow of fentanyl opioids.
CMA CGM Group posted 2024 results broadly similar to those of AP Møller Maersk (APMM), but warned of a difficult year to come. As usual, however, the French shipping group, which has now integrated Bolloré Logistics into its Ceva subsidiary, did not provide full transparency into its numbers.
Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 108,755 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
