Philippine firm International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI), through its wholly-owned subsidiary ICTSI  Marine Energy (M.E.) JLT, signed a contract with General Company for Ports of Iraq involving container facilities at the Port of Umm Qasr, located on Iraq's Gulf coast.

The Manila-based global ports operator will build and operate three new docks and operate the existing facility for 10 years. The company will also build, under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) scheme, a new container and general cargo terminal in the port for a 26-year concession period, and provide container and general cargo terminal services in both components.

According to the deal, for the first phase ICTSI will invest US$100 million to develop a dock with an estimated capacity of 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units and US$30 million for improving an existing berth.

The port has 21 berths and it had container throughput totalling 500,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in 2013. The capacity will expand to 900,000 TEUs when the facility is fully developed with 600 metres of quay.

International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is in the business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide. The firm operates the Southeast Asian country's biggest ports and has terminal concessions and port development projects in more than a dozen other countries, including in Indonesia, Japan, China, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Poland, Pakistan and India.