Bejaia Mediterranean Terminal

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In August 2004, Entreprise Portuaire de Bejaia (“EPB”), port authority and operator of the Port of Bejaia in eastern Algeria, signed a joint venture agreement with Singapore’s Portek International Limited (PIL) to upgrade, modernize and manage two container berths in Bejaia port under a 20 year concession. The two container berths in Bejaia port had a combined capacity of 300,000 TEUs and handled both container and bulk cargo. Under the concession, PIL was responsible for managing the container terminal, improving the productivity and increasing traffic by marketing the terminal to shipping lines, importers and exporters. EPB and PIL formed a joint venture company, Bejaia Mediterranean Terminal SPA (BMT), to operate the container terminal. EPB held a majority stake of 51% in BMT while the remaining was held by PIL. Information on how EPB selected PIL to be its private sector partner in the joint venture was not available from public sources. BMT was estimated to invest US$ 17 million for two quayside container cranes, four rubber-tyred gantry cranes, terminal operations systems and other infrastructure to operate an efficient and modern container terminal. BMT took over the operations of Bejaia container terminal in July 2005.