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| Funder | China Harbour Engineering Co., Ltd. (CHEC) |
|---|---|
| Recipient Organization | Sea Ports Corporation (SPC) |
| Country | Sudan |
| Start Date | Jun 08, 2006 |
| End Date | May 06, 2032 |
| Duration | 9,464 days |
| Number of Grantees | 1 |
| Roles | Recipient |
| Data Source | AidData Chinese Aid |
| Grant ID | 97760 |
CHEC provides loan — via deferred payment arrangement — for Extension and Dredging Works of Berths 17 and 18 at Port Sudan Project On or around June 8, 2006, Sea Ports Corporation (SPC) — a Sudanese state-owned company — and China Harbour Engineering Co.
Ltd (CHEC) signed a deferred payment ("延期付款”) agreement for the Extension and Dredging Works of Berths 17 and 18 at Port Sudan Project.
The loan carried an 8-year maturity and the borrower (SPC) was expected to make monthly repayments with the retained (ring-fenced) portion of its monthly operating income.
However, is is known that SPC used the deferred payment arrangement to finance a $110 million commercial (EPC) contract that it signed with China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd on June 8, 2006. The purpose of the project was to construct two 70,000-ton (TEU) container terminals at Port Sudan (Berths 17 and 18).
The total length of the terminals is 781 meters with a water depth of 16 meters.
The project scope also included dredging activities (for a foundation trench, turning basin, main channel) with a total volume of 3.5 million cubic meters. CHEC was the contractor responsible for implementation. Project implementation commenced in January 2007. The project was originally expected to reach completion within 30 months (July 2009).
As of December 2009, construction of the main terminals and ancillary works were complete, but site cleaning activities had not yet been undertaken. The project was ultimately completed in February 2011. An official project completion ceremony was held on December 21, 2011.
However, the deferred payment (lending) arrangement between SPC and CHEC appears to have underperformed vis-à-vis the original expectations of CHEC.
Sudan’s Ministry of Finance initially set up a special bank account into which SPC deposited its monthly operating income (worth approximately $200 million a year), and SPC was allowed to retain some but not all of these funds for its own purposes (such as construction and maintenance of port facilities and servicing its debts to CHEC).
However, Sudan’s Ministry of Finance subsequently took away SPC’s ability to retain a portion of its monthly income around 2011 (when the Sudanese Government faced an acute foreign exchange shortage), which made it substantially more difficult for SPC to honor its monthly repayment obligations. CHEC later disclosed that SPC was in arrears but continued to make interest payments.
Sea Ports Corporation (SPC)
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