Copenhagen: Leaders from the Ningbo Port Group and APM Terminals were on hand Friday to sign a major agreement that creates a new level of cooperation in the fastest growing, deepwater container port in the world. The new agreement reflects a 75%/25% (Ningbo Port Group/APM Terminals) share to jointly invest and operate berths 3, 4, 5, comprising a 1km quay in Ningbo’s Meishan Container Terminal. Once constructed, the new facility will become operational by December 31, 2014.
“This agreement creates important, new port capacity needed for our customers in one of the fastest growing container markets in the world. We look forward to working closely with our partners in the Ningbo Port Group”, stated Henrik Lundgaard Pedersen, CEO of APM Terminals Asia-Pacific region, based in Shanghai, China.
Ningbo is a major gateway port in Eastern China and the Zhejiang Province. It is the sixth largest container port in the world with strong growth. Container throughput in Ningbo grew 17% annually from 2006 to 2010 and reached 14.5m teu in 2011. At the current growth rate, Ningbo capacity utilization will exceed 80% by the end of 2012, and the Meishan project for berths 3-5 represents the future source of capacity. Meishan Container Terminal is the newest container terminal in Ningbo. It has five deep water container berths with designed capacity of 3 million TEU situated in the Meishan Bonded Port Zone. [15/06/12]
