Two Malaysian and one Indian company are contemplating the construction of a container port and "maritime city" 30km southwest of Kuala Lumpur.
The port would be an extension of Port Klang, Malaysia’s main outlet and one of the busiest ports in the world with around 12 million containers passing through each year.
The Malaysian outfits are the property arm of industrial conglomerate Sime Darby and the ports subsidiary of energy and infrastructure giant MMC.
The Indian partner is Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), India’s largest private port operator and a subsidiary of the Gujarat infrastructure specialist Adani Group.
MMC, Sime Darby and APSEZ signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct a feasibility study into the maritime city on Carey Island. MMC and Adani then signed a separate agreement to investigate the case for building Carey Island Port as an extension of Port Klang.
The ceremony was held in New Delhi yesterday (3 April), and was witnessed by Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia.
In a press statement, Karan Adani, the chief executive of APSEZ, said: "Malaysia is very strategic to APSEZ’s 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 [in southern India] on one side Carey Island port on the other we will be able to give transhipment solutions to global shipping lines."
Carey Island is not really an island – it is separated from the Malaysian mainland by a large stream. Sime Derby is a large-scale holder of palm oil plantations on it.
Image: The port would be an extension of Port Klang, currently the 11th busiest container terminal in the world (Hafiz343)
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