APM Terminals has signed a concession agreement for the operation of the Bahrain ports of Mina Sulman and the soon-to-be-completed Khalifa bin Salman, anticipated by the third quarter of 2008.
APM Terminals Bahrain has been awarded the concession to operate the country¡¯s commercial ports for 25 years from the start of operations at the new Khalifa Bin Salman port.
The company will provide a safe port facility at Mina Sulman for the efficient handling of import, export and transhipment cargo, both containerised and conventional, throughout the kingdom.
To maximise time efficiencies, APM Terminals Bahrain will implement a berthing window system whereby vessels are scheduled to arrive and depart within pre-agreed windows. This should ensure maximum productivity at the berth and minimum delays to the vessels.
In addition, APM Terminals will manage pilot age services for Bahrain¡¯s territorial waters, except the dry dock at Asry, in order to provide safe, consistent control of vessels within the country¡¯s waters.
To support this operation, APM Terminals Bahrain has subcontracted towage and pilot age services to its sister company Svitzer Wijsmuller, through which three modern tugs will serve vessels calling at Bahrain.
Mina Sulman houses a number of warehouses in which container stuffing and unstuffing, inventory management and general storage services are performed.
By late 2008, the construction of Khalifa Bin Salman Port Bahrain Gateway is targeted to be completed.
The new port, which will have a 1.8 km-long quay wall and occupy 900,000 sq m of land, will have substantial room for growth over the existing capacity at Mina Sulman.
Furthermore, with a draft alongside of 15m, the port will be able to handle vessels of up to post-panamax size.
APM Terminals will provide the operational equipment for the port, where the container terminal is planned to operate four post-panamax gantry cranes, and will use a rubber-tyred gantry container management system, maximising space utilisation and enabling the terminal to handle a substantial increase in total annual throughput.
On completion, Bahrain Gateway aims to be one of the most modern ports in the Gulf, handling containerships with an efficiency that matches the most productive ports in the world.
With efficient operations, fast turn-round times for vessels and short transit times, Bahrain will be an ideal location for carriers to tranship containers for all destinations in the Upper Gulf region.
|
