KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would inaugurate Pakistan’s first coal, clinker and cement terminal at Port Qasim today; established by sponsors of the Marine Group. The project was completed this year and succeeded to berth 12 coal ships at the terminal since inception of operations. The company has invested around $285 million in establishment of the county’s first and only common user coal, cement and clinker handling terminal at Port Qasim, it was reported. The terminal is capable of handling twelve million tonnes of coal in bulk per annum, and with an average discharge rate of over 30,000 tonnes per day, the cargo handling time at Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited (PIBTL) is at international levels of efficiency, informed PIBTL CEO Sharique Siddiqui. “We have currently over 20,000 shareholders and we work tirelessly to add value to our shareholders across society”, Siddiqui added. PIBTL, under a 30 year build–operate–transfer (BOT) agreement with Port Qasim Authority, has built its own jetty and is equipped with two coal ship unloadingcranes and one cement/clinker loading crane, Siddiqui informed. The state-of-the-art infrastructure at the terminal would not only reduce handling time, but would also decrease wastage of coal and cement during handling and their amalgamation with external particles during storage, he said. PIBTL’s vision is to transform the port infrastructure through investment in the latest technologies and the best global standards for handling cargo, and its goal is to strive for excellence, and to build world-class port infrastructure in the country, the CEO stated. The dedicated terminal is dredged 13.0 meters deep and capable of handling ships of up to 65,000 tonnes. The terminal operates more speedily, efficiently and reliably than the coal operation’s done by stevedores at Karachi Port, Siddiqui said. The terminal jetty has been built to handle deeper draft vessels of 15.5m and PIBT will be able to handle larger vessels once Port Qasim dredged the channel deeper beyond 13m draft, he added. A coal cargo ship with similar tonnage of cargo currently takes around five days at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) while the same cargo can be handled within two days at PIBTL due to the modern and mechanized handling system, the CEO said. Port Qasim has advantages not only for its proximity to Karachi, the financial hub, but also due to its linkage with the rest of the country through the National Highway, both of which would help reduce costs for importers, he added. Siddiqui stated now that a modern coal handling terminal had been added to the port infrastructure of the country, the handling of coal should be done at the dedicated terminal to eliminate pollution caused by coal handling at Karachi Port, which is in the heart of the city. PIBTL is financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank, and had built the facility on the World Bank standard of environmental, health and safety. PIBTL is listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange and is sponsored by the Marine Group of Companies, and also partly financed by the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Published in Daily Times, October 14th 2017.