PSA International to acquire Halterm, Penn Terminals

   PSA International said it has finalized an agreement to acquire Halterm Container Terminal in the Port of Halifax in Canada and Penn Terminals on the Delaware River in Philadelphia from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a fund managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets. The price was not disclosed.
   PSA, which is owned by Temasek, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, said it is in the process of securing regulatory approvals from U.S. and Canadian authorities. Lloyd’s List ranked PSA as the third-largest container terminal operator in the world last year. PSA’s flagship operations are in Singapore and Antwerp, but it has a network of more than 50 coastal, rail and inland terminals in 17 countries.
    Last year, Canadian National Railway said it was exploring the opportunity to invest in Halterm and if it was successful planned to market it as the “Prince Rupert of the East.”
   Last week, J.J. Ruest, the president and chief executive officer of CN, said that while it looked like another company (PSA) would acquire Halterm, he thought it was a world-class operator and that CN would work with it for better use of the East Coast port to serve the central part of North America.
   Located in northern British Columbia near the Alaska panhandle, the Port of Prince Rupert has seen container traffic skyrocket in the past decade.
   Together, Halterm and the Ceres Fairview Cove Container Terminal made Halifax Canada’s fourth-largest container port in 2018 (547,445 TEUs), behind Vancouver (3.4 million TEUs), Montreal (1,679,351 TEUs) and Prince Rupert (1,036,009 TEUs).
   Penn Terminals in Eddystown, near Philadelphia, says on its website that clients include Crowley, Independent Container Line and Seaboard Marine.