Bangladesh will sign a major 30-year concession agreement next week with APM Terminals BV, a subsidiary of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, to build and operate the Laldia Container Terminal at Chattogram Port under a public-private partnership, officials said Thursday.
The project, described as the country’s first world-class green port, is expected to draw 550 million dollars in foreign investment, the single largest European equity investment in Bangladesh to date.
“This European company will invest $550 million. Laldia will be the country’s first world-class Green Port,” Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said while announcing the plan.
The new terminal, located closer to the Bay of Bengal than existing facilities, will handle ships nearly twice the size of those now using the port. Its initial annual capacity will be 800,000 TEUs, expandable to 1 million TEUs through efficiency upgrades, officials said.
Under the revenue-sharing deal, APM Terminals will pay the Chattogram Port Authority 21 dollars per TEU for the first 800,000 containers each year.
Construction is expected to take about three years, with commercial operations targeted for late 2029.