TOKOYO: Japan’s Toyo Construction Co. and JFE Engineering Corp. have won a contract to build a new container terminal at the Port of Thilawa near Yangon, Myanmar, to expand one of the country’s key logistics hubs.
The new terminal is needed to handle larger ships and meet growing demand and will have an annual capacity of 187,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units when it is completed in the autumn of 2018, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government-affiliated aid organ.
The scope of work by the Japanese duo involves the removal of 208,000 cubic meters of sediment and construction of an 18-hectare container yard, and two jacket-type berths with depths of 10 meters (32 feet), lengths of 400 meters and widths of 40 meters.
The companies behind the project recently signed the approximately 13.8 billion yen ($118 million) contract with the Myanmar Port Authority, Toyo Construction said on Thursday.
The project will be funded by low-interest, official yen loans that are part of Japan’s official development assistance program for developing countries.
Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, but because its port is a river port, the government has decided to expand the Port of Thilawa because the Port of Yangon is not deep enough to receive large container ships.
Thilawa is home to Myanmar’s first special economic zone, which formally opened for business in September 2015 as a large-scale joint project between Myanmar and Japan.
