After more than 20 years, the fruit group Dole is parting with its own port area in Guyaquil. The buyer is the MSC Group, which includes the world’s largest container liner shipping company.
The US fruit trader Dole is selling its own container terminal in Ecuador to the port subsidiary of the world’s largest liner shipping company MSC, Terminal Investment Limited (TIL).
The Geneva-based group is paying around USD 75 million for the Bananapuerto in Guyaquil, which, according to local media reports, handled almost 330,000 TEU in the first nine months of the year. This makes it the fourth largest container terminal in the country.
Dole has stated that it will continue to have its own ships handled at Bananapuerto in the future. The fruit group operates 13 of its own container and reefer freighters for transportation to North America and Northern Europe. In the USA, the company is involved in handling and logistics activities in the ports of San Diego, Freeport, Gulfport, Wilmington and Tampa.
In addition, there are further commitments in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia as well as an agency office in the port of Antwerp. The terminal in Guyaquil is the only one that is 100% on Dole’s own balance sheet, according to Dole press spokesman William Goldfield. “After the sale, we no longer own our own port.”
The Bananapuerto had gone into operation for Dole shortly after the turn of the millennium. According to the local operating company of the US group, Naportec, the facility has four mobile cranes, two rubber-tyred gantries, 10 reach stackers and 30 terminal trucks.
MSC’s terminal division now controls more than 70 terminals worldwide with a capacity of more than 65 million TEU. With Guyaquil, the Group is adding a small specialized port solely for fruit handling to its portfolio for the first time. The competition authority in Ecuador still has to approve the sale.
