The Government has announced on Monday that it will be finalising the contract regarding the cargo handling at the Grand Harbour, Valletta. The consortium chosen is made up of Portek Group (Singapore) and TF Shipping Agencies Limited. Portek Ports (Mauritius) Ltd. will have 55% of the shares while TF Shipping Agencies Ltd. will have 45%. The contract will be for a 30-year stretch.
The Government said in a statement that it believes this new contract will bring about a practical change at the port increasing efficiency at work, lowering of tariffs, new investment within the port infrastructure and new job opportunities at the Grand Harbour.
The selection process started last February when the Government published a call for proposals that closed on 3rd April 2006. Five companies offered a tender. Following this, on 8th May 2005, the Government announced the short listing of two consortia. Then, in the past few weeks, several meeting were held between the two short listed consortia and the Committee appointed by the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communication. The Committee eventually finalised the report on the evaluation of the two offers and passed it on to the Government.
Portek Group (Singapore) is a foreign company involved in port engineering, leasing of port implants and port terminal cargo operations in four ports in Indonesia and another in Algeria. The company is based in Singapore and has offices spread around 23 different cities around the globe. TF Shipping Agencies Ltd. is a subsidy company of the local Tumas Group that employs more than 1,100 persons within different economic structure in the Maltese Islands.
This new company will be investing more than LM5,200,000 in port infrastructure necessary at the Grand Harbour and will be paying an annual rent of LM350,000 and also a throughput charge of 2% on the company’s revenue from the cargo volume to the Malta Maritime Authority. The consortium will also contribute to the sum of LM500,000 for the necessary works on the Deep Water Quay at Marsa. The consortium also plans to establish the Grand Harbour as a logistic port for cargo at the centre of the Mediterranean.
The Government has guaranteed the jobs of all the current employees. In fact, the Consortium has guaranteed their jobs to the workers of The Cargo Handling Company Limited and to the Delivery Clerks and theTally Clerks. The maximum tariffs for the cargo handling will decrease as agreed in this contract. One also has to note that unlike the Cargo Handling Company Limited, the new company will not have any revenue from the Malta Freeport since its income will be only from domestic work at the Grand Harbour.
The contract for cargo handling at the Grand Harbour is the first step within the Government’s plan for the restructuring of the ports that will be finalised in the months ahead. Presently, the Committee appointed by the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications is leading the discussions and negotiations with workers’ representatives and entities that provide port services in order to agree on the practises and payments, organisation of the port services and the introduction of competitive criteria on regulations of the said workers and entities.
The port reforms aim for the consumer to benefit from lower prices while increasing the competitiveness of the local industry.
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