APM Terminals (APMT) first phase of expansion into Turkey is well underway with a new container terminal that is to be built at Petkim Port, where it will invest US$400 million with Petkim Port to develop container and general cargo facilities, according to the Journal of Commerce.
Mogens Wolf Larsen, Managing Director of APMT Turkey, said: “The volumes in İzmir are reaching 1.3–1.4 million TEU a year. That size makes it suddenly attractive to move away from feeder services to being served directly by mother vessels.
“Today, growth is restricted simply because it is excessively expensive and also because the transit times are excessive. İzmir is our first entry in Turkey but we are working to make sure it is not our last.”
APMT will be operating under a 28-year lease and the second phase of the terminal’s expansion aiming to boost total TEU capacity to 1.5 million.
The terminal operator has opted for a number of investments in recent months, such as the US$1.5 billion it has pumped into Ghana to build a new 3.5 million TEU capacity deep-water port and logistics hub in Tema, Ghana.
APMT also recently announced its biggest ever port investment with the announcement for plans to spend $2 billion on a port in Nigeria.
Fact File: APMT has a global terminal network of 200 port and inland services operations in 58 countries around the globe. APMT designs, builds and operates port and terminal facilities, as well as providing inland cargo services for cargo transportation between port facilities and inland locations, as well as other associated cargo handling functions.
