At home in Iraq

International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) has formally opened the first-phase of the new terminal area – Berth 27 – that forms part of its Basra Gateway Terminal (BGT) concession at the North Port, Umm Qasr, Iraq.

The new terminal, which can serve vessels up to 300 m in length and offers a draft alongside of 12 m, has been fully financed by ICTSI – to the tune of $130m – and represents the largest single foreign financed investment in Iraqi port infrastructure to date. The terminal also stands as a testament to ICTSI’s willingness and ability to participate in challenging markets exhibiting what many would regard as a high degree of risk.

“ICTSI is a specialist in emerging markets which by their very nature carry with them added risk, over and above that typical in a mature economy, says Hans Ole Madsen, senior vice president, Europe, Middle East & Africa, ICTSI.

He continues: “With our origins in the Philippines, risk is an element we have learnt to accommodate and mitigate through our informed development approach. We now have over two decades of being active in challenging marketplaces and it is fair to say that we are comfortable in places where most are not. Our terminal portfolio includes businesses in locations such as Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Honduras and Buenaventura, and so clearly we are no stranger to living successfully with risk.”

Mr Madsen says that ICTSI has a template that enables building a successful business despite significant risk and that the deployment of experienced personnel represents an important part of this.

“In the pre-start up and start up phases we will draw on experienced personnel from around the group,” he says, “but progressively as we progress from these phases and new local personnel are fully trained the number of international personnel in supervisory and management functions will reduce. With the core workforce, our policy is always to draw the larger part from the local population and this has proved very successful at BGT.”

Phillip Marsham, chief executive of BGT, adds: “We operate 24/7 and in the relatively short time we have been operating our performance has become international standard measured by all the normal KPIs – over the quay handling rates, truck cycle times etc.”

Positive co-operation

Mr Madsen additionally underlines that positive co-operation with government agencies is very important to achieve successful terminal development. “In Iraq, for example,” he says, “we have worked very closely with the General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCP1), a local construction company and with other government agencies to deliver the first phase of the new terminal ahead of schedule. This has proved a very successful co-operative effort.”

In April 2014, BGT was awarded the concession to take over the Government of Iraq’s container terminal in Umm Qasr as well as construct a new berth which in phases can reach 600 m of quay and 50 ha of yard. The first phase of the new berth – Berth 27 – was scheduled to open in November 2016 but was formally opened a month ahead of time.

BGT has taken delivery of two new ship-to-shore cranes and three rubber tyred gantries to provide the main quayside and landside handling power respectively at the new terminal with this equipment supported by comprehensive tractor trailer systems and other hardware. The terminal operating system is Navis N4.

Development work has also encompassed rehabilitating and managing the existing container terminal at Berth 20, North Port plus in 2016 BGT was awarded the management of Berth 19, North Port, a bulk and general cargo facility.