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THE Port of Cork is finalising arrangements to build new EUR165 million (US$222 million) container terminal in Ringaskiddy, which will be one of the largest facilities of its kind in southern Ireland, handling up to 600,000 TEU a year.
Port authorities expect to submit a planning application in July after consulting further with residents in Ringaskiddy. The plan calls for all container handling activity at the current terminal located on a 35-acre site in Tivoli to be halted and transferred to the new box terminal in Ringaskiddy once it is up and running, provided the planning application wins approval at this stage.
"We are also preparing a financial feasibility study and once this is done we will have a better idea of when the new terminal will be open," said chief executive of the Port of Cork Brendan Keating in a report in Cork's The Irish Examiner.
The new Ringaskiddy terminal would provide additional container handling capacity than is presently available at the Tivoli terminal for the Port of Cork. In 2006, container throughput at the Tivoli facility rose 10.6 per cent over the previous year to 185,000 TEU.
The first phase of the Ringaskiddy terminal would be able to handle 400,000 TEU each year, which port authorities expect will rise to 600,000 TEU once the new facility is completed. The Port of Cork is understood to be seeking private investors to help finance the proposed Ringaskiddy terminal, the report added.
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