The Lazaro Cardenas port authority chose APM Terminals as the winner of its deepwater container terminal tender and awarded it a 32-year concession of a greenfield site for the new terminal, APM Terminals said in a statement.
The first of four planned project phases, consisting of an investment of more than $300 million, will be completed in 2015 and operations will start in the first quarter of that year, APM Terminals said.
The rest of the planned total $900 million investment will depend on a combination of the company's commitments under the concession agreement and on how demand develops, APM Terminals Chief Executive Kim Fejfer told Reuters.
"This is definitely a big investment and a greenfield site, so we have to construct everything from scratch except for the infrastructure that the port authority provides," he said.
Phase 1 will involve building a 43-hectare container yard, 650-metre quay with two berths, an office building, warehouse, gates and on-dock rail facilities, APM Terminals said.
Once the final phase is completed, the terminal will have a total area of 102 hectares, with 1,485 metres of quay, four berths and water depth in the channel and alongside of 16.5 metres, the company said.
An estimated 900 jobs will be generated during the construction phase and more than 550 jobs during the first phase of operation, excluding indirect jobs in the area, it said.
"According to our studies, the port area on the west coast of Mexico will reach 100 percent capacity in 2013, so there is a huge need," Fejfer said.
He said volumes at the port of Lazaro Cardenas, one of only two ports serving Mexico City from Mexico's west coast, rose 22 percent in the first half of 2011.
APM Terminals, one of the world's biggest freight operators, has partnered for the project with Mexican construction company ICA which will have a 5 percent stake, the Danish company said.
In Mexico, APM Terminals operates inland services in Ensenada, Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo that focus on inland transport and storage depots.
The company has more than 60 ports and 132 inland facilities in 63 countries, but the Lazaro Cardenas facility would be its first seaport in Mexico.
Its nearest port terminal now in operation is Pier 400 in Los Angeles, Fejfer said.
"We have quite an aggressive strategy to grow our business in Latin America," Fejfer said. "We have facilities in Peru, Argentina and Brazil, and we are working on a port on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica."
He said the Mexican port project would be funded with some external financing, but mainly with funds from the Maersk group. (Reuters)
