China Shipping Ports Development, the port unit of China Shipping Group, has agreed to acquire a 20% stake in the loss-making Korea Express Busan Container Terminal (KBCT) from parent CJ Korea Express (CJ Korex).
KBCT manages the container terminal in the port of Busan Shinsundae. KBCT has five container shipping berths spanning 1,500 metres with draft of up to 16 metres. The berths are capable of handling boxships of up to 14,000 teu and moved 2.2m teu in 2014.
Korex, which until now has control of KBCT, continue to be the main shareholder of the South Korean company terminal operator, while CSTD will become the second largest shareholder.
The container terminal run by KBCT covers an area of more than one million square meters, has five docks for a total of 1,500 linear meters of berths with a water depth of -15 / 16 meters and a capacity of container traffic per year for two million TEUs.
CSTD said the investment is an important step for its global expansion strategy and will facilitate the container shipping business to be merged by China Shipping and Cosco.