Victorian Minister for Ports, David Hodgett, has announced that Victorian International Container Terminal Limited is the successful contract bidder to operate Melbourne’s third international container terminal at Webb Dock.
The consortium comprised of Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) and Australia’s Anglo Ports will operate the terminal, meaning there will now be three operators in Melbourne and four in Australia.
The project is ICTSI’s first entry into the Australian market and further extends the company’s portfolio of managed ports to 30 terminals across six continents.
The Victorian Government’s ports plan includes a $1.6 billion expansion of container and automotive capacity at the Port of Melbourne, as well as the development of the Port of Hastings as Victoria’s second international container port.
Mr Hodgett said the winning bidder had lodged an innovative bid, which demonstrated the group’s global experience in terminal operations, development and shipping.
The terminal will be capable of handling vessels with a capacity of up to 8,000 standard containers. Servicing the terminal will be a 10 hectare empty container park with an initial working capacity of around 200,000 standard containers annually.
“The new terminal will handle over one million standard containers each year and Victoria International Container Terminal will concentrate on promoting off-peak truck movements to improve the efficiency of Victoria’s transport logistics and feed expanding supply chains,” Mr Hodgett said.
“The development of a new terminal at Webb Dock will create 200 new jobs in high tech container handling as well as additional jobs in local logistic operations.”
Work on the new terminal is expected to start later this year and be completed in late 2016. When fully developed and as required by volume growth, the 35.4 hectare terminal will have a total of six post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes on 660 metres of berth, and will be able to handle up to 1.4 million standard containers annually. The empty container park capacity will rise to 280,000 per year.
“A tremendous result for Australian trade,” is how the Freight and Trade Alliance’s (FTA) Paul Zalai described the announcement. “The introduction of a fourth stevedore on the east coast offers a viable alternative that will achieve greater efficiency, better service and lower prices.”
“We are appreciative of the high level of engagement that the consortium conducted with FTA over the last 18 months in developing their bid. We look to building on this relationship and seeing our industry benefitting from best practice port operations,” Mr Zalai said.
.png){kind=small}
.jpg)
.jpg)
