News bulletin – storage terminals

NEWS BULLETIN

STORAGE TERMINALS

CALDIC SELLS UP IN ROTTERDAM

Caldic has sold its tank storage and production facilities in Rotterdam, Caldic Chemie Europoort, to First State Investments. The storage facilities at the site concentrate on handling methanol and bio-ethanol, while the facility is also a major producer of formaldehyde and derivatives. Caldic says the sale is part of its strategy to focus on distribution activities in the food, health and personal care sectors.

“This integrated storage and production facility provides an excellent fit with First State Investment’s long-term infrastructure investment philosophy and is a natural addition to our existing liquid bulk storage platform, Evos terminals, providing a sizeable foothold in Rotterdam and entry into the attractive chemical storage market,” says Marcus Ayre, partner in First State’s Infrastructure Investments division. “We look forward to working with the highly skilled management team and employees to continue to sustainably develop and grow the business.”

First State is active in the storage terminal sector already. Aside from its Evos terminals in Amsterdam and Hamburg, it also owns both Navigator Terminals in the UK and ANZ Terminals in Australia and New Zealand. www.caldic.com www.firststateinvestments.com

VOPAK GETS THE NOD

Vopak has been selected by Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV), the ExxonMobil/ Sabic joint venture, to design, build, own and operate a new industrial terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas. The terminal, due onstream in 2022 with 130,000 m3 capacity, will serve GCGV’s new 1.8m tpa ethane cracker.

Eelco Hoekstra, Vopak CEO, says: “We’re very excited to support GCGV with this major industrial development in the US. This new terminal fits well into our growth strategy for industrial terminals. We’re proud of our expertise and long track record of storing vital products. We have high standards on safety and environmental care and we’re looking forward to becoming part of the Corpus Christi community.” www.vopak.com

KOREAN TERMINAL PLANNING

MOL Chemical Tankers, Korea National Oil Corp and SK Gas have formed a joint venture, Korea Energy Terminal, to build and operate a new bulk liquids terminal in Ulsan, South Korea. The partners envisage a facility with some 434,000 m3 of storage capacity for petroleum products, chemicals and natural gas, with commissioning scheduled for mid-2024. The cost of the new facility is put at some $530m.

The partners anticipate a further increase in the volume of trade in liquid chemicals into and out of South Korea, with Ulsan likely to remain the major focus of this trade.

The project will be MOL Chemical Tankers’ second participation in the bulk liquids terminal sector; it is currently involved in construction of a 500,000-m3 chemical terminal in Antwerp in a joint venture with SEA-Invest, the first phase of which is due in service in mid-2021. The company has also expanded out of its original business in deepsea shipping with a “strategic alliance” with Den Hartogh Logistics, signed