Qasim International Container Terminal

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Formed in July 1994, Qasim International Container Terminal Pakistan Limited (QICT) signed the Implementation Agreement with the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), the Manager of the Port, on July 25, 1995. After many delays, QICT finally received its first vessel, a Maersk feeder vessel Sea Pearl on August 10 1997. A month later the Europe-Pakistan-India Corsortium (EPIC), comprising 14 shipping companies including a number of major container liners shifted their business from Port of Karachi to QICT, some of them fully. The conversion of the three multipurpose berths 5,6 and 7 at the marginal wharf allows berthing of three vessels at QICT simultaneously. The terminal, comprising three berths each of 200 meters (total 600 meters) in length and 400 meters in width is constructed on a total area of 240,000 square meters. Originally, the three major shareholders of QICT were P&O Ports (49%), Commonwealth Development Corporation UK (30%), Mackinnons Pakistan, and Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company (Pvt) Limited, a joint venture enterprise of the two governments (21%). Subsequently, P&O Ports bought out the share of CDC and Pakistan- Kuwait Investment Company. In March 2006, UAE’s DP World took over QICT after it acquired P&O Ports. As of January 2007, DP World was the majority shareholder of QICT with 55% equity and the balance was held by A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (20%) and International Terminal Holdings Limited (25%), an offshore company owned and operated by Mr. Habibullah Khan. In April 2008, DP World increased its share in QICT to 75% by buying out the 20% share attributable to A.P. Moller-Maersk. According to the lease agreement, QICT will pay a flat rent of Rs 48 million (US$1.2 million) per annum (in order to calculate the real value of the concession fee, a discount rate of 12.1% aa was used; this rate is the money market rate of the year of financial closure provided by the International Financial Statistics). In addition, the company will pay a wharfage of Rs 400 (approx. US$10) per TEU and a 5 per cent royalty of the load on/load off revenue on cargo exceeding 150,000 TEUs to Port Qasim per annum. As of December 2008, the cargo handling capacity of QICT stood at 850,000 TEUs per annum. QICT was to set load on/load off, storage and handling charges at the terminal. Recruitment of 12% of the QICT labour from PQA subject to suitability. DP World Website http://portal.pohub.com/portal/page_pageid=761,248757&_dad=pogprtl&_schema=POGPRTL In March 2006, P&O was acquired by DP World of UAE.