The Port of Houston invested more than $1.2 billion in designing and constructing the Bayport facility. Construction commenced in 2004 on the initial 60-acre facility, which will be expanded to 110 acres within the next 12 months. CMA CGM will divert its cargo from Barbours Cut to Bayport.

MTC President and CEO Doug Tilden commented on the company's expansion into the Gulf and the new facility.

'We've been focusing on the western Gulf for several years and are pleased to become established in this important region,' Tilden said. 'The Bayport facility will be a world-class facility, serving a growing and vital region.'

CMA CGM, headed by founder Jacques R. Saad', is France's largest and the world's third-largest container shipping company. With a fleet of 278 vessels, the group serves more than 350 ports worldwide. In 2005, it transported in excess of five million teus (twenty-foot equivalent units), for total revenues of 5.95 billion euros*. The group has a presence on all continents and in 126 countries through its 600 agencies, employing more than 11,000 people worldwide, including 4,000 in France. (* Includes the Delmas Group.)

MTC Holdings' business units include San Francisco-headquartered Marine Terminals Corp., serving the US West Coast since 1931, and MTC East, serving the US East Coast since 2001. Combined, MTC has stevedoring and terminal operations in more than 26 West Coast locations and six East Coast ports, handling more than seven million teus annually as well as general, Ro Ro/Auto, refrigerated and dry bulk cargoes.