French container shipping major CMA CGM and PSA Singapore Terminals are planning to establish a joint venture company to lease and operate four container berths in the port of Singapore, according to Alphaliner.
The joint venture would be owned in proportions of 49% and 51%, respectively.
With an estimated annual handling capacity of over 3 Mteu, the joint venture’s facilities will be used as a container terminal for CMA CGM and its liner shipping affiliates.
The move comes after the launch of an all-cash voluntary conditional general offer by CMA CGM for all outstanding shares of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), parent company of the ocean carrier APL on 6 June.
The company subsequently satisfied the acceptance condition in the offer, and has now taken the controlling stake of 78.07 percent of all NOL shares from the company’s majority shareholders, led by Singapore’s investment fund Temasek.
The move to set up the terminal joint venture with CMA CGM is part of the Singapore Government’s plan to wrest back some of the transhipment volumes that have been lost to the competing Malaysian ports of Port Kelang and Tanjung Pelepas, Alphaliner said.
PSA’s share of the South East Asia (or ‘Straits’) container transhipment volume has fallen from 89% in the year 2000 to only 62% in 2015, while Singapore’s overall container throughput has fallen by -7.8% in the first four months of this year, following a -8.7% loss last year, whereas its key competitors gained ground.