Malta Enterprise is studying the possibility that the island becomes a logistic hub in the Mediterranean and be in a position to attract further investment, Investment, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.
Malta Freeport already has some warehousing activity, he said, but the aim of the government is to develop the possibility of a distribution park where products can come to Malta, have some added value given to them, and re-exported.
Since May 2004, Lm89 million had been pumped into new projects, investments and expansions, a sign of the confidence the international community is having in the country’s economy and workforce.
Minister Gatt, who was visiting the current Lm 10 million expansion project which is being carried out by Oiltanking Malta Ltd (OTM), said that in the last weeks, a series of expansions and investment which will create more jobs in Malta were announced.
These included the £3.5 million expansion project by De La Rue, the e7 million investment in a new call centre by HSBC and the Lm5.7 million investment by Siegfried Generics.
The OTM;s investment is another sign that Malta;s membership in the EU has revolutionised Malta;s profile, he said.
The parent company of Oiltanking (Malta) Ltd (OTM), Oiltanking Gmbh of Hamburg is the second largest independent oil storage organisation in the world. It operates 74 terminals in 19 countries with total capacity of 11.4 million tonnes. The Oiltanking Malta was incorporated in 1989 and is owned 70 per cent by Oiltanking Gmbh of Hamburg and 30 per cent by Malta Freeport Corporation Ltd. The total investment made to date in the existing infrastructure amounts to approximately Lm 22 million.
OTM currently operates tanks with a capacity of 360,000 cubic metres which are 100 per cent contracted out to third parties which use the facility to tranship oil based products. During 2005, OTM handled 3.9 million tonnes which are discharged and/or loaded from 522 vessels.
The company is currently expanding the facility two fold. One of the projects is Jetty 4. OTM developed this quay with the latest state of the art technology by laying the oil pipes underneath the entire east quay by means of horizontal drilling, thus not disturbing any of the operations of its neighbours. Jetty 4 is fully connected by means of three pipelines to the existing tank storage infrastructure.
The second project is currently being constructed. It involves the construction of tanks in what is called Tank Field 4. The total storage of the tanks in the field will be 90,000 cubic metres. The current development of Tank Field 4 will bring the total capacity of OTM to 450,000 cubic metres.