Staff Reporter:
The Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) will sign a concession agreement today for 30 years of oper-ations plus an extension tied to KPIs with APM Terminals BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Maersk A/S (Maersk Group)-one of the world’s leading integrated logistics companies, majority-controlled by the AP Møller Foundation of Denmark.
The authority will ink the agreement to design, finance, build and operate the Laldia Container Terminal (LCT) under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework.
The signing ceremony will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel in the city.
Adviser Brigadier General (Retd) Dr. M. Sakhawat Hussain is scheduled to attend at the ceremony as the chief guest while State Secretary of the Trade and Investment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Lina Gandlose Hansen and Ambassador of the Embassy of Denmark Christian Brix Møller will be present as special guests
Chief Executive Officers of the PPP Authority Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun will preside over the signing ceremony.
In a recent press conference, Ashik Chowdhury, also executive chairman of the Bangladesh In-vestment Development Authority (BIDA), said following a proposal from the Ministry of Ship-ping, the Advisers Council Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting at the Cabinet Divi-sion gave approval in principle to the concession agreement between CPA and Denmark’s APM Terminals BV for implementing the “Establishment and Operation of Laldia Container Terminal at Chittagong Port through the PPP model.”
“This groundbreaking move is anticipated to bring about a revolutionary change in Bangladesh’s port sector. This will reduce the capital expenditure burden for Bangladesh government,” he noted.
Regarding the agreement, the BIDA chief said, the ownership of the port will continue with CPA, while APM Terminals and a local JV partner will only be responsible for construction, operations, and management.
“APM Terminals BV is one of the world’s leading terminal operators (more than 60 terminals in 33 countries), operating terminals in 10 of the world’s ‘Top 20’ best-performing container ports (World Bank, 2024),” he added.
With extensive global experience across the world including East and South Asia (example: China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Malaysia), he explained that the Laldia project will introduce world class technology and operational excellence to Bangladesh, helping make the country’s lo-gistics sector future-ready in the post-LDC era.
The newest green port will accommodate large container vessels (2x vs current size), reduce per-unit freight cost and enable direct shipping connectivity worldwide, he added.
He said, “Developed under a revenue-sharing concession model, the project will generate a stable foreign-currency income stream for Bangladesh while minimizing public capital expenditure. Along with that 24/7 port operations with night navigation capabilities for ships with permissible length and draught will be enabled for the first time in Bangladesh.”
Under the concession agreement, the BIDA chief stated, APM Terminals B.V. is expected to bring in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI)’s for an expected amount of about US $550 million via con-struction of a green field port terminal in Ladia, Chattogram. This will be the single largest Euro-pean equity investment in Bangladesh to date.
A marquee global investor such as APM Terminals entering the port sector also signals confidence to other international financers, crowding-in additional FDI to logistics, manufacturing, and ancil-lary services, he added.
He said the terminal is expected to add over 800,000+ TEUs per year (+44% vs current capacity).
Ashik Chowdhury, however, said that the terminal is expected to be commissioned by 2030 and this will help relieve the current level of congestion at existing container terminals of Chattogram and providing headroom for Bangladesh’s fast-growing trade volumes.
“Higher throughput and efficiency gains from this LCT project will boost CPA’s annual revenues by receiving revenue in USD/TEU for every container handled by APMT. In addition, there will be contribution from tax payments by APMT and additional revenue from ancillary marine services,” he added.
He informed that construction and operations from this LCT project are expected to generate over 500-700 direct and formal jobs plus several thousand indirect jobs in construction, trucking, ware-housing, freight forwarding, and local SMEs.
“APM Terminals will apply internationally benchmarked health, safety, security, environment pro-tocols, lowering accident rates and improving workforce wellbeing,” he added.
He said that deployment of APM Terminals’ advanced technology in the construction of the port will modernize Bangladesh’s port infrastructure and build local technical expertise. The LCT ter-minal is expected to be a state-of-the-art modern operational terminal at the end of its construction period, he added.
“Global port operators such as APMT bring efficiency in port operations through – faster vessel turnaround, improved container dwell times via their operations which will result in a cut in the logistics costs for exporters and importers”
“Lower cost of shipping through reduced waiting time will help Bangladeshi exporters—especially in time-sensitive sectors such as ready-made garments, agro-processing, and light engineering—meet just-in-time delivery requirements, retain buyers, and compete more effectively in regional and global markets,” he mentioned.
He said APM Terminals’ in-house training programs—covering equipment maintenance, digital terminal-operating systems, and international climate and Environmental standards will up skill Bangladeshi engineers, technicians, and managers.
The creation of a locally trained talent pool raises productivity across the broader logistics sector and improves employability for Bangladeshi seafarers and port professionals abroad.
“APM Terminals is expected to deploy experienced personnel from other terminals to aid technolo-gy and process transfer (e.g.- Integration of LEAN methodology and FLOW operational process framework),” he added.
