Aden container terminal

cancelled

Yemen Investment & Development International Ltd (Yeminvest) is a special purpose development company owned by the Bin Mahfouz family of Saudi Arabia. It was awarded the Aden Free Zone Development Projects Agreement in March 1996 by the Yemen Free Zones Public Authority. This agreement, exclusive to Yeminvest, established a minimum 25-30 year concession to develop and operate the container terminal. In June 1997, Yeminvest signed a US$186.8 million turnkey contract with the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) for phase I of the Aden Container Terminal (ACT). It consists of construction of some 700 meters of berth, onshore container stacking areas, roads, standby power plant, buildings and the supply of quay cranes and other equipment for the terminal. The project was scheduled to be completed by March 1999. PSA Corp was to manage and operate ACT for a period of 20 years under a Terminal Management Contract signed in October 1997 and took 49% interest in Yeminvest. By the year 2001, container traffic handled at the port was estimated to have grown by 52%. PSA Corp pulled out of its partnership in November 2003 by selling back the 60% stake it held in Yeminvest to the government for US$200 million. The Yemeni authorities had failed to renegotiate the concession to reduce the burden of underwriting the Singapore company’s losses. Overseas Port Management (OPM), a special purpose company set up by former PSA manager M M J Subramaniam, was operating ACT while the government sought to re-tender the port. The Yemeni government intended to replace PSA with another private operator as soon as possible. At the end of 2006 the government had received proposals for a new 35 year concession from Dubai Ports World and OPM. In 2005, Dubai Ports World won an international tender to operate the port of Aden under a 30-year concession. It pledged to invest $493 million to expand and upgrade port facilities. However, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told government officials to renegotiate certain parts of the deal. As of June 2006 the deadlock over DP World's agreement with Yemen had not been resolved. In December 2006 OPM submitted a rival bid/investment plan for the concession. None