Bright chances to lift the sea cargo industry with massive cargo trade by adding Mother Vessels

Pakistan is finally planning to inaugurate its first deep water container terminal which has entered into its final phase of infrastructure development to welcome mother vessels by the mod of this year. This is going to be a booster to the sea cargo industry in Pakistan.

What are Mother Vessels?

Mother Vessel is a seagoing ship that serves only major ports. It is usually used in contrast to feeder vessels which is smaller in size and serves both smaller and major ports.

The Mother Vessel has the capacity to lift 17,000 to 18,000 containers with dimensions of 20 feet. Currently, the country is dealing with the sheer capacity of 8000 containers with the same height of 20 feet due to deep water and other handling constrains.

15% Increase in Trade via Karachi Port

According to the news from SAPT (South Asian Pakistan Terminals), “The Terminal is 100% ready to welcome mother vessels, but the much-delayed dredging of approach channel is now finally in progress.”

This project was initiated in 2007 and after that, plans to start its working in 2011-12. The delay occurred due to slow pace of progress on infrastructure development kept delaying the commencement of operations.

According to the officials, Cargo to Pakistan has recorded a growth of 12% in containerizes cargo traffic from Jan-Oct-16 compared to the same period last year. They said “we foresee 15% growth in Calendar year 2017”.

KPT Dredging Contract

According to the latest news, there are total four berths of 375-meter and the first two are planned to complete by April or May and the remaining two are planned to complete in 2020. However, the work on first birth is completed.

Another KPT official has said, “The Karachi Port Trust was awarded the dredging contract to Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV of the Netherlands for Rs. 2.98 billion.”This is a big contract and was among the four shortlisted firms including the companies of China and Belgium.