DP World and Zim together in Spain

Flemming Dalgaard, senior VP and MD for Europe and Russia at DP World, said, "There is a lot of potential there, especially because the other ports serving the greater area of eastern Spain are full - we saw it as a very good opportunity, " he said. "It’s a great location for a port in the Mediterranean, and it’s a good port for imports destined for both Catalonia and inland Spain. "It also has good connections with Madrid - both rail and road - and it is around 150km closer to that market than Barcelona, making it cheaper for importers to transport there. "Tarragona is one of the main places for imports of refrigerated foodstuffs like vegetables and wheat." Dalgaard explained. "There is a lot of this type of cargo coming in from both southern Africa and South America." He added that also the port was well protected from the wind by the surrounding mountains. It also had natural deep water, he said. Although Dalgaard wouldn’t be drawn on the amount paid for control of the operating concession, he described it as "a fair price". A spokesman for Zim said it would use the terminal as its west-Mediterranean hub, and plans to start operations at the facility by the end of the year. He said Tarragona was well positioned to become a significant gateway for Spain and the larger European markets. The city had also recently attracted investments from major multinational distributors, he added. The transaction has received approval from Tarragona Port Authority and is currently seeking European Commission regulatory clearance. Meanwhile, Zim Integrated Shipping Services was looking to raise US$250m to finance doubling the size of its fleet. Initially, parent company Israel Corp planned to publicly list the line in Hong Kong to raise the capital, but later decided against this citing turbulent market conditions. It now plans to raise the funds through a rights issue.