15/05/2019
CN Rail was also in the bidding for Halifax’s Halterm terminal
Singapore-based PSA International Pte Ltd. has reached a deal to acquire the largest container terminal in Eastern Canada, the company has confirmed.
In a brief email statement, PSA said that “it has finalized an agreement” to acquire the Halterm terminal in Halifax from Australian-based Macquarie Infrastructure Partners.
PSA is also acquiring Penn Terminal in Philadelphia. The terms of the deal were not announced, and PSA says the company is in the process of securing regulatory approvals from Canadian and American authorities.
Canadian National Railway Co., which is Halterm’s rail link to central Canada and the mid-Western United States, had submitted a bid for the terminal along with partner French shipping giant CMA-CGM.
Halifax Port officials and CN executives were reluctant Tuesday to acknowledge whether a deal had been finalized.
CN Chairman Robert Pace said that he would not comment given that a deal had not made public. The railway’s vice president of marketing, Dan Bresolin, was also reluctant to discuss the PSA deal, but said, “We’re doing all the rail with whoever. We’re excited to do that and we’re excited about the prospects here in Halifax for growth.”
While Halifax Port Authority president Karen Oldfield would not confirm if a deal had been reached, she nevertheless said that if PSA was coming to Halifax, “what a wonderful thing that would be for our future.”
Oldfield, who said she has met in Singapore with PSA International officials on unrelated matters in the past said that the company took a long view. “Bringing that kind of long term vision to a city like Halifax can only be a good thing,” she said.
During a CN sponsored Halifax Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday, Oldfield noted that the Port of Halifax generates a nearly $2 billion impact on the province, an increase of 15 per cent in the past two years. She said the port accounts for 15,000 direct and indirect jobs in the province, primarily in Halifax. That’s a 20 per cent increase since 2017.
Halifax Longshoremen ILA Local 269 Vice President, Craig Messervey was receptive to the news that PSA appeared to be taking over Halterm.
“It’s great to see a world leading terminal operator showing interest in Halifax,” he said.
The Halifax Port Authority is spending 35 million dollars to extend the berth at Halterm so that two ultra large container ships can be serviced simultaneously. Right now, the terminal can only handle one at a time.
A Halifax Port Authority study released in January recommended that Halterm be expanded Northward using the existing port foot print which would more than double the terminal’s capacity.
No decision has been made on that, but Oldfield said if PSA International does take over Halterm, “It would certainly be a top-of-mind question, issue and discussion. 100 per cent.”
That would more than double the 30 hectare size of the terminal and its current 750 thousand TEU (twenty foot equivalent) capacity.
PSA International also purchased Penn Terminals in Pennsylvania from Macquarrie but it would not be a competitor for the ultra large container ships Halifax is looking to attract.
Container Filler & Logistics operates successfully in the logistics sector, in Constanta seaport, where are located the company's warehouses and the entire infrastructure dedicated to the handling of goods that transit through this seaport, either for import or export.
Source: Financial Post