State-owned Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) received its first shipment of four new rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes from Japan this week as part of the $22mn investment plan to expand the seaport’s container throughput capacity by 80%, a port official said yesterday. According to Lou Kim Chhun, the four new cranes would boost the port’s current handling capacity of 400,000 TEUs by 50%, and another two gantry cranes due to arrive from China by the end of the year will raise the capacity to 700,000 TEUs, facilitating the loading and off-loading of containers on ships. Chhun said the expansion project was being financed by internal funds, and was not linked to a concurrent $80mn expansion plan financed by the Japanese government first announced in 2014. The $80mn loan from the Japanese government was set to build a new 3-hectare cargo terminal, to be completed by July of next year, as well as being used to develop a 330-meter-long quay and purchase a new set of gantry cranes. However, SAP has said it needs to raise funds from an initial public offering (IPO), scheduled for Feb 2017, to assure it can repay the Japanese soft loan. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)