China, Investments, Lithuania, Port, Transport

Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), a MSC company that owns a majority stake in Klaipedos Smelte, has told Rimantas Juskus, the company's CEO, that the group is not planning to sell it to the Chinese corporation.

"The talks did take place and they were very intensive, but they failed to agree on terms acceptable to both sides. I don't know if this is the end of the story, but the shareholders have made it clear that the MSC Group is not going to sell Smelte," Juska told the paper.

According to him, the shareholder did not elaborate on the reasons for ending the talks.

Sources have told Verslo Zinios that no deal was reached because China Merchants Group sought to buy a controlling stake in Klaipedos Smelte, but TIL did not want to give up control of the company.

MSC, a global leader in container shipping, continues to see Klaipedos Smelte as a strategically important terminal in the Baltic Sea region and has not dropped plans to send ocean-going vessels to Klaipeda on a regular basis, Verslo Zinios reported, citing Rimantas Juska, the Lithuanian company's CEO.

However, no exact date has been given as to when such ships will start coming to Klaipedos Smelte's 77-million-euro container distribution terminal on a regular basis and when the transshipment of containers to smaller feeder vessels for transportation to other Baltic Sea ports will begin, the business daily wrote.

Arvydas Vaitkus, director of the Klaipeda port authority, which has invested over 20 million euros in building new quays as part of the distribution hub project, told the paper that he had recently discussed the terminal's future plans with the management of MSC, which controls Klaipedos Smelte, and had been assured that stronger growth in container traffic was expected in the second half of 2016.