On December 22, 2023, “Open Site Construction of First Phase of Deep-water Container Port Terminal, 350 meters long, and inauguration of 2 mobile lifting machinery at the edge of the port under the concessional loan and Unconditional aid from the government of Japan ” under the high presidency of Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
New Deep-water Container Port Terminal of first step is 350 meters long and 14.5 meters deep. The container port will be able to accommodate container vessels with a capacity of 60,000 tons or 4,000 TEUs, with transit routes in the Asia-Pacific region to the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, and will increase the total port capacity to approximately 1, 25 million TEUs per year.
The project has being built by the Japanese company TOA Corporation and technically supervised by Nippon Koei and Oriental_Consultants Global, with a construction period of 36 months and this project will completed by 2026.
The new deep-water port terminal is expected to expense about $243 million, including a contribution budget from the Royal Government of Cambodia for various taxes. The deep-water container port terminal of first phase, when put into operation, will allow about 93% of ships in the region to enter the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port to dock, which is currently only 18% accessible, and the cost of shipping by sea saving about $200 per TEU. The price is similar to other countries in the region.
After the completion of the first phase, the Royal Government plans to expand the construction of the second and third phases. The second phase will allow container vessels with a capacity of 120,000 tons or 10,000 TEUs, has waterway to transport goods to and fro in the Indo-Pacific region and the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and will increase the total port capacity to more than 1.8 million. TEUs per year.
The third phase will allow container vessels with a capacity of 160,000 tons, or 15,000 TEUs, has waterway to to and fro transport goods in Europe, the United States and around the world to the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port without going through other ports in the regions. The container portterminal will increase the total port capacity to about 2.5 million TEUs per year.
According to the feasibility study, the construction project of these three new container ports terminals will transform the capacity of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which is currently a small international port, with a competitiveness, which allows large container vessels from any area in the world can be docked easily and quickly without the obstacles of deep water.
The second and third phases of the new deep-water container port terminal are expected to incrementallyexpanse a total of $698 million, which more than $500 million will be concessional loans from the Government of Japan and more than $100 million is contribution budget of the Royal Government of Cambodia.
Along with the groundbreaking ceremony for the deep-water port terminal construction of the first phase, there is also the official inauguration of two mobile cranes with a capacity of lifting up to 100 tons. Both mobile cranes are unconditional aid from the Government of Japan to the Royal Government of Cambodia under the Economic and Social Development Program with a total budget of approximately $13.9 million.
Please to be informed that Sihanoukville Autonomous Port has been playing an important role in contributing to support the growth and development of the country. Freight through the port is increasing significantly from year to year, making the port’s revenue as well as national revenue increase steadily.
In the first 11 months of 2023, the volume of transit goods exceeded 7 million tons, increased 11.34% and total business revenue was more than $85 million, increased 2.71% compared to the same period in 2022.
In addition, the volume of containers passing through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port totaled more than 750,000 TEUs, an average increase of 10.83 percent in the last 12 years from 2010 to 2022.
