Lebanon gives CMA CGM contract to revamp Beirut container terminal

A fisherman travels on a ship in entrance of a CMA CGM container ship passing via the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

BEIRUT, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Lebanon has awarded France’s CMA CGM (CMACG.UL) a contract to develop and function the container terminal in Beirut port for 10 years, together with plans to rebuild and broaden infrastructure broken in a large chemical explosion in 2020.

CMA CGM stated it will make investments $33 million, together with $19 million over the primary two years to improve infrastructure on the terminal and digitalise operations, and that it will goal capability of 1.4 million 20ft equal items (TEUs), up from 650,000 at present.

The deal expands CMA CMG’s presence within the japanese Mediterranean. The transport group, which is managed by the French-Lebanese Saade household, absolutely acquired the container terminal at Tripoli port in northern Lebanon in 2021 and has a presence at Latakia port in Syria.

CMA CMG Chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saade stated the Beirut contract envisaged remodeling the terminal right into a “state-of-the-art facility” that will “revitalise the financial exchanges between Lebanon and the remainder of the world”.

Worldwide corporations would pay for port companies in {dollars}, which might go to the cash-starved public treasury, Public Works and Transport minister Ali Hamie stated at a information convention.

CMA CGM would obtain charges fastened at $11 plus 285,000 Lebanese kilos (about $14.30 on the prevalent, unofficial trade price) per TEU, he added.

The August 2020 explosion killed greater than 200 folks and broken total neighborhoods, deepening Lebanon’s worst political and financial disaster for the reason that 1975-1990 civil warfare.

CMA CGM joined French President Emmanuel Macron in aid efforts in Beirut after the blast.

Although the port quickly resumed operations, elements of it are nonetheless suffering from particles and badly broken storage amenities, and administrative buildings have but to be repaired or changed.

CMA CGM had beforehand outlined plans to Lebanese authorities for a separate $400 million to $600 million proposal to reconstruct the remainder of the port.

Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut and Gus Trompiz in Paris
Writing by Mahmoud Mourad and Aidan Lewis
Enhancing by David Goodman

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