The Algeciras Port Authority has set a Nov. 30 deadline for companies to submit bids for a 50-year concession for a public or dedicated terminal that must include “automated solutions.”
Cosco Shipping Ports, which combines the port units of the recently merged Chinese ocean carriers Cosco and China Shipping Group, two weeks ago sealed the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in the Greek port of Piraeus, where it already handles about 3 million 20-foot-equivalent units annually.
The Hong Kong-based company’s drive to extend its presence in the fast-growing Mediterranean transshipment market suffered a setback, however, in April, when it lost out to a consortium led by Eurogate, the German terminal operator, in the bid for a 25-year contract to operate the Limassol Container Terminal in Cyprus.
The Algeciras tender is expected to attract widespread interest as the Spanish port is a major success story, posting the fastest growth in the world’s top 30 container ports in the first half of the year, with traffic up 13.1 percent to 2.35 million TEUs in a global market that is expected to grow by just 0.3 percent in 2016, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.
The third terminal, to be built next to the intermodal freight railway terminal, will pose a major challenge to the existing terminals operated by Maersk’s port arm APM Terminals and TTIA Algeciras, which handled 4.5 million TEUs in 2015, the second-highest volume in Spain after Valencia.
APM Terminals has an agreement with Maersk Line under which the carrier has dedicated capacity in Algeciras — and at its new automated terminal in Rotterdam and a terminal in Tangier, Morocco — and is responsible for any financial risks.
Piraeus is one of the most successful operations in Cosco’s domestic and global portfolio, with traffic surging by 15.2 percent in July to 323,300 TEUs for a seven-month increase of 14.2 percent to just more than 2 million TEUs.
Cosco is also expanding its presence in northern Europe, acquiring a 35 percent stake in Rotterdam’s Euromax terminal in May from Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port Holdings for 125.4 million euros ($141.7 million).
The company also operates terminals in the Belgian ports of Antwerp, which handled 1.2 million TEUs in the first seven months of the year, and Zeebrugge, where traffic topped 200,000 TEUs.
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