Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, part of the Adani Group, and Switzerland-based firm MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company on Tuesday announced the formation of a joint venture that would operate a new container terminal in the South Basin at Mundra port in Kutch district of Gujarat.
The new container terminal, the third such facility at Mundra, will have a capacity of 1.5 million twenty feet equivalent units (TEUs). The joint venture will be known as Adani International Container Terminal Pvt Ltd (AICTPL).
When contacted, an Adani Group spokesman declined to divulge any details about the equity of the two partners in the JV and other related issues. Apparently, the two partners have agreed to form the JV. in principle, and are still working out other details.
Adani Port at Mundra, India’s largest private port, has deploying the largest cranes in the new termial. It would have among the deepest and longest berths in the country. The new terminal, sporting the latest technology, is also environmentally friendly, according to a company statement.
The new container terminal will enable the biggest and largest container vessels to berth and operate at Mundra. With access to both northern and western India, the trade would benefit from scale benefits of larger vessels calling at Mundra, in addition to its proximity to markets in the hinterland, providing a cost advantage to port users. The new terminal would serve as a regional hub with trans-shipment of international cargo, said Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group.
Adani Ports will be expanding its capacity to provide international standards of capability and cost-efficiency, he added.
Mundra port has rail connectivity to the northern and western Indian inland container depots (ICDs) and operates double-stack container trains to ICD Patli and others ICDs in NCR zone.
MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S. A. of Geneva is a privately owned shipping line and the second largest container shipping line in the world. As of end-April 2013, MSC was operating 458 container vessels with an intake capacity of 2,274,000 TEUs. MSC is the leading provider of direct port calls, serving the six continents and calling at 316 ports through 200 direct and combined weekly liner services.