Ports opened up to foreign management

16 February 2007

Tehran has entered talks with three potential international partners over running one of its largest ports, at Bandar Abbas.

Tehran has entered talks with three potential international partners over running one of its largest ports, at Bandar Abbas.

Tidewater, a company part-owned by the government, is in discussions to set up a joint venture to run the country's largest non-oil port, Shahid Rajaee at Bandar Abbas. It is part of the state-owned Ports & Shipping Organisation (PSO) programme to increase private sector involvement in the sector.

'We want the joint venture to be finalised in five-six months,' says PSO deputy minister and managing director Ali Taheri. 'Tidewater has been holding discussions with [Hong Kong-based] Hutchison Ports Holding, Singapore's PSA and KGL of Kuwait.'

The venture will operate the first-phase expansion of Shahid Rajaee, which is almost complete, and operate and equip phase 2. The second phase, being built by the local Ghorb Khatem with the assistance of Royal Boskalis Westminister of the Netherlands and Italy's Trevi Group, is due to be completed in 2009. By then, the port's capacity will be more than 6 million containers. In 2005, it handled 1.3 million containers (MEED 17:11:06).

PSO has set capacity targets of 6.7 million containers and 158.8 million tonnes a year of general cargo by 2015. Further port expansions are due at Chabahar, Imam Khomeini and Bushehr. Ghorb has been selected as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the $340 million Chabahar expansion. Located in the Sea of Oman, Chabahar is being expanded to meet a projected increase in re-export demand to Afghanistan.

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