The Philippines' International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) has agreed to operate, develop and expand Iraq's largest port facilities and invest US$130 million in the first phase of the deal.
The Manila-based global ports operator signed a contract with General Company for Ports of Iraq involving container facilities at the Port of Umm Qasr, located on Iraq's Gulf coast, reported Reuters.
The port has 21 berths, with container throughput totalling 500,000 TEUs in 2013.
ICTSI, in a stock exchange filing, said the contract grants it rights to manage and operate the existing container facility at Berth 20 of the port for a 10-year period.
ICTSI will also build, under a build-operate-transfer scheme, a new container and general cargo terminal in the port for a 26-year concession period, and provide container and general cargo terminal services in both components.
It said the expansion project would involve an initial 200m of quay with an estimated capacity of 300,000 TEUs.
The capacity will expand to 900,000 TEUs when the facility is fully developed with 600m of quay, ICTSI said.
ICTSI, owned by the Philippines' fourth-richest person Enrique Razon, operates the Southeast Asian country's biggest ports and has terminal concessions and port development projects in more than a dozen other countries, including Indonesia, Japan, China, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Poland, Pakistan and India.
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