The Times of Oman has reported that the Board of Salalah Port Services Company (SPS) has approved an investment of US$66M in infrastructure to support 10 new STS cranes at SPS in Oman.
APM Terminals holds a 30% stake in SPS and has a 30-year concession to operate the terminal until 2028. That would not normally leave enough ‘runway’ for an international terminal operator to purchase 10 new STS cranes, which would cost over $100M, at this point in the concession.
It appears from the Times of Oman’s reporting that an extension to the concession, backed by a volume commitment from Maersk AS, has been negotiated and is awaiting SPS shareholder approval.
The addition of the 10 new cranes is said to be conditional on completion of the infrastructure work. A significant item in this area could be additional vacuum mooring units for larger vessels. In 2014 Salalah installed Cavotec’s MoorMaster system at its container berths 5 and 6. In 2016 Salalah added 16 further MoorMaster units for berths 3 and 4 at a cost of approximately EUR 10M.
The primary reason for installing vacuum mooring at Salalah was to hold vessels in a stable position during the Kareef season, when tidal surges of up to 2.5m reduce crane productivity considerably.
Source: worldcargonews 17 December 2022