Jan 27, 2007
PSA, China Shipping 'win key port stake'

SHANGHAI - SINGAPORE'S PSA International and China Shipping Group have won major stakes in the billion-dollar Phase 3-A of Shanghai's Yangshan Port project, a source said yesterday.

Phase 3-A of Yangshan, a deep-water port project whose completion could make Shanghai the world's largest container port, comprises four berths.

'PSA and China Shipping got a big stake,' the source, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

Separately, the Shanghai Daily, citing a source, said yesterday that PSA and China Shipping had been allocated 30 per cent each of Yangshan Phase 3 - which will consist of seven berths and is scheduled to be operational by 2010.

Shanghai International Port (Group), or SIPG, owns 20 per cent, while the remaining 20 per cent is split evenly between China Ocean Shipping Group (Cosco) and French shipping company CMA CGM, the newspaper said. SIPG declined to comment.

Shanghai, the world's third-largest container port city by volume, had lacked a deep-water port before Yangshan was built. The project, with five phases, has attracted strong interest from overseas investors.

AP Moeller-Maersk and Hutchison Whampoa each hold 32 per cent in Phase 2 - completed late last year.

REUTERS

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

PSA adds 4 new terminals worldwide

1 Mar 07

It makes strategic move into Panama, Turkey and India

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/mnt/media/image/launched/2007-03-01/BT_5750843_01_03_2007.jpg

(SINGAPORE) PSA International has stoked its overseas portfolio with four new container terminals, including a strategic move into Panama, along with Turkey and India, following the recent announcement of new terminals in Pakistan and Vietnam.

In a surprise move, PSA posted details of the four new terminal projects on its website this week without making any official announcement. The developments bring its portfolio up to 25 ports in 14 countries.

Contacted by BT yesterday, a spokesman declined to comment other than to confirm the validity of the four web-based fact sheets.

Much speculation has surrounded PSA's interest in Panama after Panamanian officials told BT a year ago they were hopeful PSA would take part in a US$900 million mega-container terminal project.

That project is understood to have been shelved in favour of developing the three-berth Rodman project with a total investment in the range of US$150-200 million. Panama is putting heavy emphasis on infrastructure as it seeks to capture a bigger slice of surging global trade, 90 per cent of which is carried by sea.

All-water shipments from Asia, particularly China, to the US east coast have grown substantially in recent years, translating to a mammoth flow of containerised cargo crossing through Panama.

The country recently approved a US$5.25 billion expansion of the 92-year-old Panama Canal so larger cargo and cruise ships can transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

'With the boom in China-US trade and surging container volumes from South America, the Panama Canal has grown in strategic importance in providing a Far East-US East Coast all-water service and as a transhipment point for the region,' PSA said in its factsheet.

The terminal concession will also put PSA in competition with Hutchison Port Holdings' (HPH) Pacific coast terminal located nearby at Balboa, in which PSA has an indirect stake thanks to the 20 per cent HPH stake it aquired last year. The first phase of the PSA Panama International Terminal, expected to be operational by 2009, will feature a single container berth with annual capacity of 450,000 TEUs (20-foot containers).

Also new is a Turkish terminal on the south-eastern coast of the country and a key gateway to the eastern Mediterranean.

Mersin International Port has four container berths with annual handling capacity of 880,000 TEUs and looks to grow as a gateway between the Middle East, North Africa, Mediterranean and Central Asia.

Meanwhile, in India where PSA has had mixed success - having sold its share in the northern Indian port of Pipivav leaving it with only a greenfield site at Tuticorin - the Singapore operator has picked up two new terminals.

Both are due on stream by 2009, the first on the north-western coast in Gujarat at the Hazira port and the second on east coast at Chennai. The PSA Hazira International Terminal will have two berths with an annual capacity of 1 million TEUs and is located 250km from the Delhi-Mumbai cargo corridor.

PSA says the terminal is well placed to tap the cargo hinterland of Gujarat and Maharashtra, which handles more than two-thirds of India's total container traffic.

In Chennai, PSA will operate the Chennai International Terminals, the second container facility in a rapidly growing region which caters to automobile, pharmaceutical, textile, leather, light engineering and chemical manufacturing industries.

The four new terminal projects follow two projects in Vietnam and Pakistan which PSA officially announced - the SP-PSA International Port (SP-PSA) at the mouth of the Cai Mep-Thi Vai river near Ho Chi Minh City and PSA Gwadar International Terminal in the western province of Balochistan, just outside the Straits of Hormuz.

PSA International enjoyed a record year in 2006, when its overseas terminals achieved a 30.2 per cent increase in container throughput, handling 27.31 million TEUs. Including its Singapore operations, the PSA Group handled 51.29 million TEUs last year.


By DONALD URQUHART

March 6, 2007
PSA chalks up third straight record gain

By Bryan Lee

PORT operator PSA International has posted a 14.3 per cent rise in full-year profit to $1.21 billion, beating previous highs clocked in the past two years.

The record-breaking performance came as the world's No.2 port operator after Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa handled more containers than ever.

Revenue for the year ended Dec 31 rose 1.6 per cent to $3.74 billion as PSA moved 51.3 million containers at 20 ports in 11 countries. This was a 19 per cent gain from the previous year.

Strong world economic growth fuelled robust global trade expansion, while acquisitions of port assets in Hong Kong also boosted the top line.

Earnings from port operations, before finance costs and taxes, rose 17.2 per cent to $1.5 billion. Total assets jumped 68.7 per cent to $17.21 billion as the company bought a 20 per cent stake in Hutchison's port network for US$4.4 billion (S$6.7 billion) last April.

'PSA continually strengthened its leadership in 2006, both through capacity expansion of existing terminals and investments in new port projects around the world,' said PSA chief executive Eddie Teh.

The Singapore operations, which are the world's busiest container terminals, remained PSA's main source of revenue and income, even as overseas units handled more boxes than terminals here for the first time last year.

Income from Singapore rose 5.2 per cent while revenue, which made up 52 per cent of total turnover, grew in line with a 7.6 per cent rise in throughput, the company said.

The local bottom line was also boosted by various cost reduction moves which helped make up for higher fuel prices, said PSA.

Beyond local shores, China operations in Dalian, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Hong Kong were the brightest spots, as profits surged 32.5 per cent on the back of a 13.9 per cent rise in revenues.

But in Europe, earnings slumped 14 per cent as PSA incurred start-up expenses and higher depreciation costs from new berths and equipment commissioned last year.

PSA's overall bottom line was also given a leg-up by a failed attempt to take over P&O last year.

After accumulating a 4.1 per cent stake in the British company, PSA bowed out of a bidding war with Dubai Ports World in February last year.

But it netted an investment gain, estimated at &pound29 million (S$86.6 million), from selling the P&O shares.

Looking ahead, PSA will be expanding existing berths and building new ports, including four new terminals - in Panama, Turkey and India.

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Singapore's PSA to build Panama port
Posted: 13 March 2007

PANAMA CITY: PSA International, which runs the world's busiest container port in Singapore, announced Monday it would build a US$100 million container terminal at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal.

PSA chief executive Eddie Teh said the new facility will be able to handle 450,000 containers in 2009 when it starts up operations.

The terminal will be built on the former US Rodman naval base at the canal's Pacific mouth.

"The new terminal will double the installed port capacity in the country, importantly offering new job opportunities for Panamanians together with the transfer of advanced technology," said Panama's President Martin Torrijos.

The move is the latest in Panama's privatisation of port operations along the strategic canal bridging the Atlantic and Pacific.

The arrival of PSA follows its Hong Kong rival Hutchison, which operates two facilities, one on each end of the canal.

The Singapore state-controlled PSA operates the world's busiest container terminal at home, having moved ahead of Hong Kong in 2005.

The company operates 25 ports in 14 countries.

Singapore and Panama signed a free trade agreement last year, and the state-owned ST Aerospace signed a deal to lease another former US base in Panama, Howard, for use as a commercial aircraft repair facility. - AFP/yy