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Netherlands-based port operator APM Terminals has bought a 100% stake in Reefer Terminal S.p.A., located in Italy’s Port of Vado Ligure, but the terms and the value of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Vado Ligure Reefer Terminal, the largest refrigerated terminal in the Mediterranean, handling 600,000 pallets per year, is also a terminal for the handling of containers (275,000 TEU, 510 reefer plugs, 14.5 meter depth and 465 meter of quay) and general cargo.

APM Terminals has acquired the terminal from Italy’s fruit and vegetable produce importer GF Group as part of the port master plan to create new supply chains to markets in Northern Italy, Southern France, Switzerland and Bavaria.

The Reefer Terminal is located adjacent to the construction site of the APM Terminals Vado port project which will open in January 2018 with 800,000 TEU annual capacity and a 17 meter depth.

”The integration of the Vado Reefer Terminal with our new, future semi-automated container terminal enhances the logistics options for businesses and the shipping lines calling the Ligurian coast, serving all of Northern Italy and beyond,” said APM Terminals Vado CEO Carlo Merli.

”We are building Italy’s port of the future with ideal access to Turin and Northern Italy manufacturing zones as well as consumer markets. Equally important, we will have the best port system and product in the market capable of serving container vessels, reefer vessels, RoRo and breakbulk vessels.”

Reefer Terminal will continue to operate as a terminal highly specialized in the discharge and warehousing of fresh fruit and vegetable produce.

”This sale represents a further step in the process of refocusing on our historical business of import and distribution of fruit and vegetable produce,” said GF Group President Raffaella Orsero.

”We will however remain a Reefer Terminal customer with our weekly Central American service, operated with four GF Group owned refrigerated vessels.”