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Cambodia: Bids called for construction of new deep water terminal at Sihanoukville
The listed-Sihanoukville Autonomous Port has called for public bidding for the construction of its deep seaport terminal project after the layout-design of the port has been completed.
Lou Kim Chhoun, Director General of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said that it is the first phase of expansion for the port.
It is one of the three port terminal construction projects, he said.
“The Port plans to expand capacity to allow cargo ships from the US and Europe to dock, without the need for transit of cargo at other ports,” Chhoun said.
The first phase of the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which is 350 meters long and 14.5 meters deep, will be funded by a $200 million concessional loan from the Government of Japan.
As planned, the second and third phase of the port terminal projects are designed to be built after the first project is completed and put into use.
“We are pushing ahead to ensure that the construction of the second and third port terminal projects are completed ahead of the scheduled 2027 and 2029 respectively,” he said.
“So far, in terms of the volume of containers passing through Cambodia, we export and import about 60 percent of the total containers passing through the deep seaport. We hope that by 2025 when we commence the first phase of the port terminal expansion project, we will be able to serve nearly 80 percent for in-and-out containers,” he said.
Currently, the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port is able to accommodate only 18 percent of ships in the Asia-Pacific region, meaning that out of 100 ships, less than 20 percent of that can dock and only 1,500 container vessels are able to dock at the port.
“Once the terminal construction is completed, our port will be upgraded and will become one of the biggest ports in the region,” he said.
Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, applauded the move.
“It will make it easier to transport agricultural products and other goods without passing through other countries’ ports,” he said.
“This is what the private sector, traders, exporters and importers in Cambodia are waiting so we can export and import conveniently and speedily,” he said.
For 2020, the volume of goods passing through the port had seen a four percent increase compared to 2019, according to the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port’s report.
In the first quarter of 2021, the volume had increased by sox6 percent compared to the same period in 2020.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50981582/bids-called-for-construction-of-new-deep-water-terminal-at-sihanoukville/