APM Terminals has lodged a case at the Durban High Court in an attempt to block an Asian port operator rival from taking over a terminal in the city, South Africa’s largest container facility.
Manila-headquartered International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) was meant to have taken over the running of Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2 from state-run Transnet from the start of this month, however APM Terminals has brought lawyers in to question the 25-year tender award suggesting that it presented a superior bid.
Specifics of the case brought by the Maersk affiliate have not been made public.
After 20 years of trying, the South African government took its first step towards port privatisation with the ICTSI award last July.
Transnet selected ICTSI as the preferred bidder for a joint venture to develop and upgrade the flagship Durban terminal nine months ago so that it can handle 2.8m teu a year, up from the current 2m teu.