The Hindu Business Line : PSA Corp bullish on India

PSA Corporation Ltd, the Singapore government-owned port operator, continues to be bullish about India's container trade and its India plans, undeterred by the recent failure to clinch the contract for developing a new container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

Based on 2003-04 figures, the total container throughput handled by Indian ports were 3.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), whereas China handled 48 million TEUs for the calendar year ended December 31, 2003, a company official said requesting anonymity.

"When you compare the demography of India and China, India is full of potential," he told Business Line. "Our direction in India is very clear. We want to invest in India. PSA is looking at investing in at least one port on the east coast and one on the west coast of India," he stated.

Currently, PSA is evaluating the prospects of container terminals coming up at major and minor ports on the east and west coasts of the country. "For instance, we will bid for the proposed container terminal at Ennore Port as well as for the forth container-handling facility being planned at Jawaharlal Nehru Port whenever they are put to tender by the government," he said.

PSA is also undertaking due diligence for developing a container terminal at Hazira Port in Gujarat. As part of the concession agreement signed between Royal Dutch Shell Group and the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for developing a 5-million-tonne-per-annum capacity LNG terminal, Shell is also required to set up multi-cargo facilities, including containers and dry cargo at the deep water port in Hazira. Shell plans to develop the container facility by roping in a strategic container port operator.

PSA Corporation Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Temasek Holdings Pvt Ltd, the investment arm of the Singapore government, currently has a presence only in Tuticorin Port where it operates a 3-lakh TEU capacity container terminal from a usable quay length of 350 metres in association with local partner SICAL.

PSA has decided to sell its 22.5 per cent stake in Pipavav Port to the Danish firm Maersk A/S and other investors, which is described as a "strategic exit" from the privately run port in Gujarat.

The company's attempt to widen its presence in India failed recently when it emerged third in partnership with the Bombay Dyeing Group (after eventual winner Maersk-Concor combine and ULA-Hamburg Port Authority) in a competitive bidding process for building a new container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, the premier container port in the country accounting for about 60 per cent of the boxes handled at all the major ports put together.

After showing interest initially, PSA also decided against submitting an expression of interest for developing and operating a container transhipment terminal at the minor port of Vizhinjam in Kerala for which the State government had floated global tenders. "We have not expressed interest in the Vizhinjam project right now," the official said.