The Port of Antwerp International (PAI), a subsidiary of Port of Antwerp, is in talks with Indian private sector port developers for jointly promoting projects in India.

short-listed projects The company has already short listed some projects including the Essar Group's Hazira Port, senior PAI officials said.

PAI is interested in making equity investments in large projects, providing training to port personnel and offering consultancy services.

training

It has an on-going tie-up with Mundra Port in Gujarat for training. So far, more than 250 people from India were trained at Antwerp port's training centre, officials said.

“We have entered into an MoU with Essar Ports in February this year.

Because of ongoing analysis and negotiations, the partners have extended the MoU till the end of this year.

To begin with PAI will collaborate with Essar Ports to further develop its Hazira project,” Mr Yannick Duffraimont, Chief Executive Officer, PAI, told a team of journalists from India in Antwerp recently.

Essar Ports, which recently got listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, currently has two operating terminals - Hazira and Vadinar.

hazira

The Hazira port is an all-weather, deep-draft port with a capacity to handle 30 million tonnes of bulk cargo annually. Currently, the port is handling mainly captive cargo.

“We are interested in the project as it proposes to handle third-party cargo,” said a PAI official who is in–charge of projects in India.

Essar Ports wants to bring down the volume of captive cargo by 70 per cent in the next couple of years.

vadinar

Vadinar is also an all-weather, deep-draft port with a capacity to handle 58 million tonnes of liquid cargo. Essar is also setting up a new project at Salaya in Gujarat and Paradip in Orissa.

PAI is also looking at projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

dighi port

It is believed to be interested in Dighi Port, being developed jointly by Balaji Enterprises and IL&FS.

Antwerp is not interested in bidding for just a terminal in a port.

“Antwerp port's competence is in port management. We are interested in large projects,” said Mr Raj Khalid, the Representative of Antwerp port in India.

Antwerp is a land lord port and all terminals are operated by private parties.

Port of Antwerp, the second largest Port in Europe, has two offices in India — in Mumbai and in Pune — and a third office is likely to be opened in Nashik.

The second largest port in Europe

PAI was set up to leverage Antwerp's expertise in port management and to explore global opportunities.

Besides India, PAI is focusing on West Asia, Africa and Brazil.

It has recently signed an MoU with Oman government for developing a port project in that country.

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