Bollore's port in Timor Leste's Tibay Bay has officially began activities with the arrival of ships at the gateway.

Bollore said the vessels that arrived on September 30 were Selatan Damai of the Singaporean company Mariana Express Lines (MELL), a subsidiary of Pacific International Lines (PIL), and Meratus Pematangsiantar of the shipowner Meratus.

It noted that it took four years of work to transform the greenfield site into a new highly competitive port and the country's first public-private partnership, this project involved a US$490 million investment over a 30-year period.

"Tibar Bay's new port will target productivity and performance levels in line with those of the world's biggest ports," the transport and logistics company said.

Bollore noted that the port has modern infrastructures with a 630 m quay and 15 m draught. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment including 2 STS gantries, 4 RTGs, 10 terminal tractors and 16 trailers.

Serving all types of vessels

"We are proud of the completion of this project, which we have been working on for several years. The new Tibar Bay port combines the latest innovations in equipment and operating systems and will be able to accommodate all types of vessels," said Laurent Palayer, managing director of Timor Port.

The Bolloré Group was chosen in 2016 to build and operate the future deep-sea port of Dili. It then selected China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) for the construction of the port of Tibar west of Dili, the capital of East Timor.

The new infrastructure is expected to soon obtain the Bolloré Ports Green Terminal label following an audit by Bureau Veritas after recently achieving EDGE1 certification (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies).