Adani Group eyes global expansion with new container port in Malaysia

APSEZ operates container handling facilities at its flagship Mundra Port as well as Hazira Port

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), India's biggest private port operating firm, plans to undertake a feasibility study on building a greenfield multi-purpose port, mainly for handling containers at Carey Island in Malaysia's Selangor state, about 50 km southwest of capital Kuala Lumpur.

The feasibility of developing a mega container handling port project on Carey Island as an extension of the existing Port Klang has been flagged off with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between APSEZ and MMC Port Holdings Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of MMC Corporation Berhad (MMC), a utilities and infrastructure group.

"Malaysia is very strategic to APSEZ global strategy and with straits of Malacca being a global shipping route it helps us to drive our global transhipment strategy further. With Vizhinjam port on one side Carey Island port on the other we will be able to give transhipment solutions to global shipping lines," said Karan Adani, CEO, APSEZ

Simultaneously, MMC Port Holdings, Sime Darby Property Berhad, and APSEZ have signed a separate MOU to study the feasibility of developing an integrated maritime city on Carey Island to support the planned new port.

APSEZ operates container handling facilities at its flagship Mundra Port as well as in Hazira Port, both in Gujarat on India's western coast and at Kattupalli near Chennai in Tamil Nadu on the eastern coast.

It will soon start operating a new container handling facility it has built at Kamarajar Port at Ennore near Chennai. The firm is also building a mega container transhipment port at Vizhinjam on India's southern tip located in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Under the one-year MOU, MMC Port, Sime Darby Property and Adani Ports will collaborate and undertake the feasibility study for the Carey Island Port Project and the supporting integrated Maritime City.