PSA Sical Terminals on tenterhooks as J M Baxi Ports & Logistics opens new terminal at VOC port

India’s second public-private-partnership (PPP) cargo terminal after the government opened the state-owned major ports to private investments in the late 1990’s, PSA Sical has been beset by tariff issues for many years. PSA Sical Terminals, credited with putting V O Chidambaranar Port on the world map of container ports, owes some sum in unpaid royalty dues, including interest and penal interest, to the port authority from 2011.

 “PSA Sical is a gone case,” said a port industry official, who has tracked the terminal for many years. “PSA Sical themselves don’t want to operate the facility,” he noted. The V O C Port official said that PSA Sical will be “happy to shake hands” with the port authority and move on as it runs out the last few years of its 30-year contract that ends in 2028.

“With the opening of the Tuticorin International Container Terminal (TICT), the question is what will be the future of PSA Sical. That is a question everyone in the trade is asking,” he said.

“With TICT starting operations, there is an alternative now for the shipping lines. That’s the best thing to have happened to the port authority.

It can look at options on what to do with PSA Sical Terminals – whether to stick around with them till 2028 or let them go without hurting the trade that relies on V O C Port,” he added.