MPS in US$1.5B Ghana project

News 13 Jun 2015 by WCN Editorial

Meridian Port Services will invest in a new port at Tema, Ghana, with a capacity of 3.5M TEU.

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MPS is a joint venture between APM Terminals (APMT – 35%), Bolloré Africa Logistics (BAL – 35%) and the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA – 30%).

“We are excited about how this port will contribute to Ghana’s future economy,” said Kim Fejfer, the ceo of shareholder APMT. “The deal also emphasises our strong commitment to Africa’s growth and development.”

While he stressed that the new port would mainly process Ghana’s growing import and export cargo base, which is anticipated to expand by 5% to 7% per annum for the foreseeable future, he listed opportunities in both the transhipment and transit cargo sectors to/from Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad and Niger.

“This new terminal will help Africa increase its share of global trade while its superior infrastructure and our use of advanced technologies will allow Ghanaian companies to compete in a more cost effective way.”

In particular, the executive believes the new port will boost agricultural exports out of Ghana, both commodities and reefer crops, such as pineapples, by improving both the costs and security of existing food supply chains.

When complete, the new port will comprise four berths (1,400m), with depths alongside of 17m. This will mean that any containerships cascaded from main east-west trades will be able to be accommodated in Tema.

The new complex will have a total handling capacity of 3.5M TEU which compares with 750,000/800,000 TEU at MPS’s existing two-berth facility in the old port area.

According to Fejfer, this terminal will cease to handle containers once the first three berths of the new complex are opened. “This facility will be handed back to the GPHA and used to handle breakbulk, general cargo and ro-ro traffic,” he said.

The new port project also involves APMT and BAL adding two lanes to the existing dual carriageway between Tema and Accra, the nation’s capital city, and improving various access roads to/from this link.

Fejfer said these upgrades would account for between 15% and 20% of the total cost of the project and were “absolutely necessary in supporting the envisaged growth in traffic”.

The new deal also means a new concession agreement for MPS which has been working in the old port since 2004 and whose concession was due to expire in 2024. “Commencing today, we have a new 35-year operating concession with GHPA,” said Fejfer. “We have been working on this for the past five months and hope to commence operations in 2019-20.”

Last year, the MPS facility processed just over 650,000 TEU.