Freeport does not fear Grand Harbour competition

The Freeport does not fear the prospects of increased competition for container traffic by Valletta Gateway Terminals in the Grand Harbour, according to the company's managing director.

After Freeport Terminals Ltd unveiled four new mega cranes yesterday, managing director Uwe Malezki said the company did not consider the Grand Harbour operation as competition.

Valletta Gateway Terminals runs port operations in the Valletta harbour and is one of the shortlisted bidders for the shipbuilding site, which the company wants to use as storage space for containers.

"Our level of productivity has gone up and to attract large ships we have had to invest in huge cranes," Mr Malezki said.

During a tour of the facilities in Birżebbuġa, Investments Minister Austin Gatt was shown the latest investment to the tune of €24.5 million in four huge tandem cranes. The cranes can handle four containers at one go and cater for the largest existing or planned container ships. Their installation will help improve the Freeport's efficiency.

Each crane weighs 1,750 tonnes and could handle up to 80 tonnes.

Mr Malezki said that while competing ports around the Mediterranean had seen their throughput decline by a fifth this year because of the recession, Malta Freeport had kept up last year's levels.

It planned to handle three million containers a year from 2011.

Dr Gatt said the investment justified the privatisation of Malta Freeport five years ago. He said the facility now employed 1,200 workers, including 254 employed since privatisation.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com