Sources say DP World has reached a deal to sell its minority stake in the Visakha Container Terminal (VCT), in the eastern Indian port of Visakhapatnam, to the local joint venture partner. Mumbai-based J.M. Baxi seems set to gain full control of VCT by acquiring DP World’s 26% ownership.
Visakhapatnam was one of six terminal concessions under DP World’s Indian network. The other active locations are Nhava Sheva/JNPT (two terminals), Mundra, Chennai and Cochin. Equipped with two berths, a draught of 16.5 meters and an annual capacity of 700,000 TEU, VCT began operations in 2003. The recent completion of an expansion programme – covering a 395-meter berth extension and more quay crane deployments – has raised VCT’s capacity to about 1.3 million TEU annually.
As a result, VCT logged significant productivity highs on Maersk Line’s recent ship calls from its intra-Asia CHX Service. The vessel Celsius Nairobi that docked on 5 April at VCT saw an average gross crane rate of 36 moves per hour and berth productivity of 103 moves per hour.
Source: container-news.com