Essar Ports and Antwerp End Strategic Alliance

Essar Ports and Belgium’s Port of Antwerp have mutually terminated their strategic alliance agreement signed back in 2012, India’s second-largest private port operator said in a stock filing.

However, Essar Ports says that the companies will continue to work on the ongoing engagements which were initiated under the agreement.

The alliance was aimed at structural and commercial collaboration in training and consultancy, port planning, raising the productivity and quality of logistics services and connections with the hinterland in India, and generating freight between the two regions.

Port of Antwerp International UK, a subsidiary of the Port of Antwerp, invested EUR 25 million in the alliance with Essar Ports, aimed at raising the visibility of the Port of Antwerp in the Indian subcontinent.

The alliance gave the Port of Antwerp an opportunity to mount targeted commercial initiatives to generate Indian freight bound for North-West Europe via Antwerp. Port of Antwerp International UK for its part obtained access to Essar’s port network.

Port of Antwerp International UK was set up to participate and invest in overseas ports and port-related projects in strategic regions such as the Middle East, India, sub-Saharan Africa, the ASEAN countries and Brazil, as part of the port of Antwerp’s foreland policy.