Listed International Container Terminal Services Inc. plans on investing $343 million to expand the operations of Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), its fully-owned subsidiary in the Port of Melbourne, Australia.
Under the plan, ICTSI will undertake a phased development of the Webb Dock North Container Terminal and integrate its operations with VICT. This will deliver higher operating efficiencies at a lower development cost and, more important, a significantly reduced environmental impact.
The port operator already invested $481 million in Victoria, Australia since the establishment of VICT in 2014, making it one of the largest foreign infrastructure investors.
The development would increase VICT’s container capacity to 3.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), allowing for four container berths with the ability to service vessels up to 14,000 TEUs and up to 367 meters in length.
Christian Gonzalez, ICTSI executive vice president, said the company is the ideal long-term partner for the Port of Melbourne to ensure it can meet the growing demand of Australia’s busiest container port.
“Victoria’s growing economy presents the Port of Melbourne with the opportunity to consolidate its position as Australia’s number one container port,” Gonzalez said.
ICTSI has engaged multiple global firms to assess the merits of its proposal in comparison to current expansion designs for the Port of Melbourne. Jacobs Engineering undertook a detailed technical assessment, including estimates of construction costs, while Boston Consulting Group focused on market and economic assessments.
The external reports conclude the ICTSI proposal could deliver cost savings of more than $165 million and spread the timing of spend over a longer time period while introducing significant capacity into the market sooner.
Gonzalez said preliminary discussions were held with the Port of Melbourne and its owners as well as with the Victorian government and other key industry stakeholders.
He said ICTSI has made it clear it is ready to test its proposal in any competitive process that the Port of Melbourne may require for the future of Webb Dock.
“We believe we can partner with the Port of Melbourne to deliver the superior proposal for Webb Dock and in turn, lock in further economic prosperity for Victoria,” Gonzalez said.
“We look forward to sharing further independent analysis of our proposal alongside all details with the Port of Melbourne and other key stakeholders in due course,” he added.
