Eurogate may invest in two Europe terminals

Eurogate GmbH & Co. KgaA, Europe’s largest container terminal operator, may invest in two European ports as it expects to grow almost twice as fast this year, Emanuel Schiffer, co-chairman of the company, said, Bloomberg reports.“There are two other projects we are looking at, and while we normally develop new terminals from green-field sites, these are two existing terminals that need a real development kick,” Schiffer said in an interview at a conference in the German port of Wilhemshaven on May 27. He declined to identify the ports.


Eurogate operates nine container terminals in Germany, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and handled 12.6 million standard containers last year -- more than the 11.1 million boxes handled by Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port. The Bremen, Germany-based company expects to handle 10 percent more containers this year, compared with 5.2 percent growth last year and a "long-term" yearly growth rate of 7 percent to 10 percent, Schiffer said.


“If the right opportunity is there, we may also look outside Europe for new projects,” he said.


The company traces its roots back to 1865, when Eurokai was founded in Hamburg, and to 1877, when BLG was created in Bremen. The two companies merged in 1999. Eurogate reported a 29 percent increase in profit to 61.6 million euros ($87.9 million) last year.


Eurogate may make a bid if Hamburg, Europe’s third-largest container port, decides to develop the Steinwerder site in its harbor into a new container terminal, Schiffer said.
(Source:http://en.portnews.ru)