Bidding for the second phase of construction at the Port of Kaohsiung’s Cargo Terminal No. 7 is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year after the Public Construction Commission reviews its budget, Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) said yesterday.
The terminal is part of the firm’s plan to enhance the competitiveness of the nation’s largest international seaport and to sustain its development, it said.
The terminal is to be equipped with five deepwater piers, with a total pier length of 2.42km, which would allow it to berth container ships with capacities for 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the company said.
The first phase of construction, which includes building two of the deepwater piers and a land reclamation project, is scheduled to be completed next month, it said.
The Executive Yuan has approved the second-phase construction plan, the company said, adding that it was working on a more detailed design for the terminal.
TIPC said that it in December last year signed a 50-year lease with Evergreen Marine Corp that would allow the shipping firm to have exclusive use of the terminal.
Evergreen was keen to lease the terminal, as the nation lacks deepwater piers that allow the berthing of 20,000-TEU cargo container ships, which has become a trend in the international shipping industry, TIPC said.
Evergreen plans to turn the terminal into an automated container handling base, which would have the capacity to process 4.1 million TEUs per year, it said.
The government is to invest NT$16.3 billion (US$518.12 million) to build infrastructure around the terminal, while Evergreen is to invest NT$20.6 billion to purchase heavy machinery to handle containers, TIPC said.
The shipping firm is to begin operations at the terminal after TIPC completes infrastructure construction in June 2023, it added.
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