The Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC), based in Geneva and the largest container shipping line globally in terms of capacity, docked at DGBT for the first mainline direct call to Europe from V O Chidambaranar Port in twenty years. This was the MSC Taerim.
Arriving from Chittagong, Bangladesh, the container ship can carry 1,890 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It is scheduled to sail to ports in Europe, including Sines, Portugal; Valencia, Spain; and Bejaia, Algeria.
DGBT IS one of the two container terminals run by the state-owned V O Chidambaranar Port Authority (VOC Port), is 49 percent owned by Bollore Africa Logistics. 51 percent of the terminal is owned by India Ports and Logistics Pvt Ltd, the biggest shareholder.
At DGBT, a port that primarily supplies the transhipment center at Colombo Port, MSC manages about 44% of the volumes handled there.
DBGT can load 7,20,000 TEUs annually and has a water depth of 14.2 meters. At the moment, DBGT processes about 55,000 TEUs every month.
MSC is bringing additional ships to the terminal, adding higher volumes, but the plan to acquire a 49 percent ownership in DBGT cannot be completed unless the Union government gives its security clearance, according to V O C Port Authority officials.
MSC has plans to purchase an inland container depot (ICD) that is connected to the terminal by rail and located near VOC Port. This will enable the containers that are unloaded at DBGT to be transported across long distances.
