New container berths will avoid delays at northern Europe's congested ports
Cosco Pacific yesterday secured a 25 per cent stake in a new terminal project at the Belgian port of Antwerp, giving China Ocean Shipping Container Lines (Coscon) its long-awaited dedicated facility on Europe's congested northern seaboard.
The Hong Kong-listed blue chip agreed to buy shares in a consortium led by P&O Ports, which in April signed a 40-year concession to build and operate a six-berth complex on the bank of Antwerp's river Scheldt in an area known as Deurganckdok East.
Cosco confirmed the deal in a statement released last night. Earlier in the day P&O also put out a statement saying the Euro530 million ($5.33 billion) project would be funded by 'a combination of debt provided by a syndicate of banks and equity provided by shareholders, including Cosco, in proportion to their shareholdings'.
Cosco Pacific's share would commit it to $1.34 billion of the projected development cost.
'We very much welcome this agreement with Cosco. Antwerp is set to become one of the world's biggest ports,' Robert Woods, chief executive of P&O's parent Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, said in a statement to the London exchange yesterday. 'This level of shareholding meets our objectives [while] securing strong volume commitments from our liner partners.'
P&O Ports retains a 42.5 per cent share in the project, the group's liner arm P&O Nedlloyd holds 25 per cent and local operator Duisport 7.5 per cent.
