ICTSI wins Tartous concession

ICTSI beat three other bidders to win the contract: CMA CGM of France, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport/Gulf Stevedoring and OPM/PWC Logistics. It will pay the Tartous Port General Co (TPGC) a yearly fixed and variable fee per teu.

The company wants to develop Tartous as the gateway for Syria’s capital Damascus and as a major hub for the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East hinterlands. It is set to invest US$37m over the concession period to improve facilities and to buy new equipment, including two quay cranes, six RTGs, a reach stacker and container handlers, forklifts, tractors and trailers. It will rehabilitate and develop existing infrastructure, along with a new administration building, a workshop, reefer racks and terminal gates.

The Port of Tartous, which lies 258 km from Damascus, has a 540 m long quay with a controlling depth of 12-13 m alongside and a 14.5 m entrance channel. In 2004 it handled 52,628 teu and total cargo of 9.7 million tonnes, 24% of which went to Iraq and Jordan. Container traffic has grown at a rate of 12% over the past ten years.