Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 26
Trend:
APM Terminals BV, the port operator, based in Netherlands, seeks to buy more ports in Turkey, Bloomberg reported citing Mogens Wolf Larsen, managing director for APM's Turkish unit.
"We are definitely interested to have a port around Istanbul, in the Marmara region," Larsen said in an interview. "We can also look at the Mediterranean coast between Mersin and Iskenderun."
Turkey handled 8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers at its ports in 2013 and had capacity of about 12 million TEU.
"The container port business in Turkey is very underdeveloped," Larsen said. "As Turkey opens up and starts accepting large ships, container port businesses will grow," he added.
Larsen said that the company plans to start operations at its container port, located in Aliaga peninsula in western Turkey from the end of next year, Larsen said. The port will be fully operational from 2016. It's located next to a plant of Petkim Petrokimya Holding AS (PETKM), the country's biggest petrochemicals maker.
APM will pay annual fees to Petkim while operating the facilities for 28 years. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) bought a 30 percent stake in the port for $250 million this year.
Petkim, owned by State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, and APM Terminals are together investing as much as $450 million in the APM port, which will have an annual container handling capacity of 1.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEU, according to Larsen said.
"That will make the port Turkey's third-largest after Mersin International Port on the Mediterranean coast, and Marport, near Istanbul", he said.