A Maltese company, Mariner Capital Ltd, has been selected as the preferred operator for the proposed development of a container terminal in the Scottish town of Rosyth. The process, however, is still to be finalised.

The Rosyth International Container Terminal (RICT) is to be developed on a site which lies within Port Babcock Rosyth, which includes a dockyard port and which is owned and operated by Babcock Mariner. The site, on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, is a short distance away from Scottish capital Edinburgh, which is on the south bank.

The dockyard itself was built by the Royal Navy in 1907. It has been operated by Babcock since 1987, and owned by it since 1997 when it was privatised, but is still an important Royal Navy base – it is the assembly site for the navy’s newest aircraft carriers.

But Babcock has been seeking to further develop and diversify its commercial port operations, including through cargo handling, berthing and ship services.

The RICT will be developed over an area of 22.5 hectares, and will serve as a feeder gateway terminal capable of handling over 400,000 TEUs to meet current and future requirements of the Scottish market.

Mariner Capital and Babcock are working closely on the application for the RICT project, which is being coordinated by Mike Murray (Babcock) and Michela Borg (Mariner).

A report on a public local inquiry was sent to the Scottish Cabinet in late 2012, and the ministers have now indicated that the project is to be approved.