PM to inaugurate first coal, cement terminal at Port Qasim

Lahore : Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will inaugurate Pakistan’s first coal, clinker and cement terminal at Port Qasim established by the sponsors of Marine Group on October 14.

The project has been completed this year and has successfully berthed 12 coal ships at the terminal, says PIBTL release here on Friday.

The company, Pakistan International Berth Terminal Limited has invested around 285 million dollars in the establishment of this unique project, said PIBTL Chief Executive Officer, Sharique Siddiqui.

The terminal is capable of handling twelve million tons of coal in bulk per annum and with an average discharge rate of over 30,000 tons per day.

The terminal handles cargo very efficiently at international standard, he said.  ” We have currently over 20,000 shareholders. We work round-the-clock to add value to our shareholders across the society,” he said.

PIBTL, under 30-year built, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement with Port Qasim Authority, has built its own jetty and was equipped with two coal ship unloading cranes and one cement/clinker loading crane, he said.

The state-of-the-art infrastructure at terminal not only reduced cargo handling time but will decrease wastage of coal and cement during handling and their amalgamation with external particles during storage.

The dedicated terminal was dredged to 13.0 meters deep and was capable of handling ships of up to 65,000 tons. The terminal operates more speedily, efficiently and reliably than the coal operation was being done by stevedores at Karachi Port, he claimed.

He said a coal cargo ship with similar tonnage of cargo currently took around five days at KPT and at PIBT it could be handled within two days due to modern and mechanized handling system.

The terminal jetty had been built to handle deeper draft vessels of 15.5 metres and PIBT will be able to handle larger vessels once Port Qasim dredges the channel deeper beyond 13 metres draft.

Siddiqui said PIBTL’s vision was to transform the port infrastructure through investment in the latest technologies and according to the best global standards for cargo handling.

Its goal was to strive for excellence and to build world-class port infrastructure in the country, he said.

PIBTL was a public limited company listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange and was sponsored by the Marine Group of Companies. It was partly financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.