APM Terminals, the port franchise of Danish oil and shipping conglomerate AP Moller Maersk, said it would team up with French Bollore Group to build a new deepwater container terminal in the Republic of Congo.

Mr Klaus Sejling VP of APM Terminals Global Business Development said that "APM Terminals will be a minority shareholder in the Congo Terminal which achieves our goal of participating in the market growth of the Congo and Central Africa."

APM Terminals said that Bollore Group signed a EUR 570 million, 27 year concession agreement with the Congolese government in December 2008 on the deepwater facility.

Plans include a new container terminal to handle vessels carrying up to 7,000 TEU container units, and to double annual throughput from 300,000 TEU containers.

AP Moller Maersk earlier said that it was talking to potential interested parties on transactions regarding its cargo ferry operator Norfolkline.

(Sourced from Reuters)