Razon’s ICTSI wins 25-year deal to operate Africa’s top port

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine conglomerate won the bid to operate and develop one of Africa’s largest ports.

In a disclosure sent to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the Razon-led International Container Terminal Services Inc. said their winning bid covered a 25-year joint venture with Transnet Port Terminals to operate and develop the Durban Container Terminal Pier 2.

A Bloomberg story on Monday said that the move would privatize operations of the South African port. The container port is located at the Port of Durban, which Statista data showed was Africa’s largest port in 2020 clocking in 2.59 million of twenty-foot equivalent unit throughput.

The announcement was publicized by Transnet SOC Ltd, a state-owned company that owns railways, ports and pipelines infrastructure in South Africa. 

As it is, the DCT Pier 2 is already Transnet’s largest container terminal, with 1760 meters of operational quay length and 120 hectares of container storage and backup area.

That said, the final award of the 25-year deal is still subject to the signing of legal agreements between the Philippine port operator and Transnet.

Shares in ITCSI currently trade 0.59% up at P206.2 as of 10:56 Tuesday morning. — Ramon Royandoyan