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SCMP Reporter

The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) has won a US$187 million deal to build quays and a container terminal for a free zone at Yemen's southern port of Aden.

 Planning and Development Minister Abdul-Qader Bagammal said the contract would be signed in London on June 17 to help restore the port as a key staging post between Europe and Asia.

 Bechtel International and other leading firms competed for the deal.

 The deal is seen as part of PSA's drive to export its services to build, manage and operate container terminals worldwide.

 PSA's first major deal was with Dalian port, the fourth-biggest container port in China after Shanghai, Tianjin and Qingdao.

 The authority's interest in Dalian Container Terminal - its first international port venture - is held through its majority-owned subsidiary Singapore-Dalian Port Investment, in which it has a 49 per cent stake. The remaining 51 per cent is owned by its Chinese partner, Dalian Container Comprehensive Development.

 PSA also teamed up with two Hong Kong partners to win a 50-year contract to help manage and develop Fuzhou port, one of two ports which have Beijing's approval for direct shipping links with Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

 PSA, with Henderson China and the Hong Kong arm of Indonesian-backed Pacific Industries and Development, has signed a contract with the Fuzhou Port Authority to form a joint venture to manage and operate two existing container terminals at Qingzhou and Daijiang.

 They will also develop and manage a third port, the new deep-water container terminal outside Minjiang.

 The Aden project is an important element of the Aden Free Zone, a $580 million project to make Yemen's economic and commercial capital a major transshipment hub.

 'We will try hard to have the first quay operational at the Aden Free Zone by September 1998,' Mr Bagammal said.

 The zone will have six quays and a 16-metre-deep navigational channel, increased from 12 metres, with all services and facilities to accommodate the largest container vessels.

 The Aden project is being driven by the Yemeni Investment and Development Company, an international consortium which includes Saudi investors of Yemeni origin as well as Saudi and United States development firms. Meneren Corp of the US is in charge.

 The first phase, covering dredging and other operations, would be completed by next month while piers and the cargo terminal would be ready by April 1999 at a cost of $250 million, Mr Bagammal said.

 Aden aims to offer facilities and fast turnaround for the largest carriers now plying routes from Europe through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to Southeast Asia, Australia and the Far East.

 Aden's revival is a challenge to regional rivals - Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port of Jeddah and the Gulf ports of Dubai and Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, which are shallower.

 Aden was once an important staging post for shipping between Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. About 7,000 vessels called each year during the 1950s and 1960s but war and political uncertainty drove trade elsewhere.



Yemen plans free zone to restore port as major link on Europe-Asia route