Construction of Petkim port starts this month: SOCAR
By Aynur Jafarova
The construction of Petkim container port is expected to start on November 13, the head of SOCAR Turkey Enerji said on November 2.
The Technical and Industrial school named after Heydar Aliyev is expected to be opened on the same day, Kenan Yavuz said.
Yavuz who is also a board member of Petkim Petrochemical Holding said earlier that the construction of the container port is one of the projects rapidly implemented in Turkey, and agreement on the construction of a new port was reached with Danish and Dutch companies.
According to him, the port will belong to Turkey, but Danish and Dutch companies will operate the port for 30 years.
It is expected that the first and the second phase of the port's construction be completed in 2015 and 2016, and the project will cost $400 million.
The investment process is expected to be completed in 2014.
The initial capacity of the port will be 1.5 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) which will be increased to four million TEU in the future. Its capacity will exceed the capacity of Aslandzhak port by about 50 percent.
Petkim is co-owned by the Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR and Dutch company APM Terminals Terminals, one of the world's leading port operators.
In February last year, Petkim signed an agreement on the construction of a container port with the capacity of 1.5 million TEU.
Petkim will invest in the construction of the port and its infrastructure, while APM Terminals will invest in vehicles and equipment.