Dubai-headquartered ports giant DP World and Canadian investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) have signed an agreement with Indonesian conglomerate Maspion Group to build a $1.2bn international container port and logistics park in the Indonesian town of Gresik, near the East Javan port city of Surabaya.
Construction is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021, with commercial operations scheduled to start in 2023.
The JV, “DP World Maspion East Java”, will be sole operator of the port with a design capacity of up to three million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
The parties will also develop an industrial and logistics park next to the terminal with an initial land area of 110 hectares, with scope for future expansion.
The project is billed as helping Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s plan to make Indonesia the fifth largest economy in the world.
DP World said the JV is the first of its kind in the Indonesian transportation sector involving a foreign direct investor and a private Indonesian company.
The signing ceremony was held last week in Jakarta and was attended by Mr. Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, and the UAE’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, H.E. Suhail Al Mazrouei.
“Indonesia is rapidly developing as one of the world’s most important economies,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World.
“This project will create modern, efficient infrastructure, as well as an industrial zone that provides quality logistics. DP World’s business model and vision are aligned with President Jokowi’s vision to spur faster economic growth through trade infrastructure development, more investment opportunities, and job creation.”
Dr. Alim Markus, Chairman and CEO of Maspion Group, said: “Surabaya is an important gateway in Indonesia and the existence of this container port will further enhance economic development and investment opportunities in Indonesia.”
Emmanuel Jaclot, Executive Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure at CDPQ, said Indonesia was a strong growth market with “favourable structural trends”.
He added: “It also represents an important milestone for our joint platform with DP World with the addition of a first greenfield port to our portfolio of high-quality assets that have demonstrated their resilience over the past year despite important shifts in the global supply chain landscape.”
DP World and CDPQ have jointly invested in 10 port terminals around the world through their $8.2bn investment platform launched four years ago.
