Container throughput at SCCT up 11%

Container throughput at the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) increased by 11 per cent last year to a record 2.7 million TEUs, a statement released by APM Terminals said.

APM Terminals owns 55 per cent of the shares of SCCT, while 20 per cent of the shares is owned by Cosco Pacific, 10 per cent by the Suez Canal Authority, five per cent by the National Bank of Egypt and 10 per cent by the private sector.

This increase comes at a time when many terminals struggled for volume and market share during 2009, as overall global container throughput declined by an estimated 10 per cent, and the total number of vessels transiting the Suez Canal dropped by 20 per cent, the statement said.

In 2008, SCCT container throughput had surged by 34 per cent and currently the terminal accounts for one out of every five transshipped TEUs in the Eastern Mediterranean, it said.

Located in Port Said East near the mouth of the canal, SCCT was officially opened in December 2004 and provides service to major shipping lines.

With the completion of a dredging project last year, which deepened the terminal's draught from 13.9 to 14.5 metres, and the expected complement of 24 super-post Panamax cranes at the conclusion of the Phase II expansion now under way, SCCT is capable of handling the largest container ships entering the global container fleet. Scheduled to be operational in 2012, Phase II will increase annual capacity at SCCT to 5.4 million TEUs.

A planned rail link to the greater Cairo area is expected to boost local cargo traffic through the terminal. A second consecutive year without an increase in the Suez Canal toll structure is also projected to bring more business to SCCT, it said.

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