New port for Brunei?

The Sultanate of Brunei plans to expand its only container port as part of the country’s effort to become a transhipment hub in South East Asia.

It looks as though ICTSI will be awarded the contract to operate a new container terminal to be developed in the Sultanate of brunei

The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam has given the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) the go-ahead to award to International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) the cargo handling operations at a new US$1.5B container terminal to be built on Pulau Muara Besar. This island off Muara is the country’s principal and only deepwater port located some 29 km from the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan.

The government of Brunei Darussalam is offering to put up 70% of the construction cost in a bid to find a backer for a new container terminal. Brunei has long been mooted as a location for a major transhipment hub and the government has already given the PSA a concession to operate the Muara container terminal.

Throughput at PSA International’s Muara Container Terminal in Brunei rose 32 per cent to 101,100 TEU last year, passing the 100,000 TEU mark for the first time.

Brunei, the tiny oil and gas-rich sultanate on the Indonesian island of Borneo, is planning to call tenders early next year for the construction of a US$1.7 bill deepwater container transhipment port at Pulau Muara Besar.