QICT

Qasim International Container Terminal was Pakistan's first dedicated container terminal built by the private sector, becoming operational in August 1997 on what had been multipurpose berths 5, 6 and 7 at Port Qasim — converted at a reported cost of around $100 million into a two-berth container facility. The commercial structure is unusual enough to note: sources describe it variously as build-own-operate and build-operate-transfer, sitting on a 30-year renewable lease dating from 1994 with a fee structure combining a fixed annual lease rent to Port Qasim Authority and a royalty on load-on/load-off revenue above a volume threshold. A 30-year term from 1994 has now run its initial course, and the renewal position is not something either PQA or DP World states plainly in public material. Ownership today is 75 percent DP World and 25 percent International Terminal Holding Limited.

The facility grew substantially with Terminal 2, which opened in 2011 on 13 hectares of reclaimed land and was presented at the time as taking Port Qasim's container capacity from roughly 900,000 TEU to around 1.2 million. Current DP World material puts design throughput at 1.4 million TEU per annum, so the capacity figure has moved twice and the number you find depends on which announcement you are reading. Berth lengths differ by source in a smaller but similar way: DP World's own listing gives 712 metres across two berths at Terminal 1 and 615 metres at Terminal 2, while Terminal 2's opening coverage described a 670-metre quay and Port Qasim Authority material has historically cited around 600 metres for the original conversion. These are not contradictions so much as different measurement conventions and different construction stages, and none should be treated as precise. Draft is the more consequential number and is more consistent: roughly 12 to 12.5 metres at Terminal 1 with tidal benefit, and around 13 metres at Terminal 2. Maximum vessel length is capped at 340 metres, extendable to 354 with dispensation, and night navigation is restricted to 310 metres.

Those draft and length limits are the defining operational fact about QICT and the one most worth understanding, because they are channel constraints rather than terminal constraints. Port Qasim is approached through a long dredged navigation channel, and no amount of quayside investment changes what can transit it. This is why the ultra-large vessels now calling Karachi Port cannot call QICT, and why the two facilities are not straightforwardly interchangeable even though both serve the same Karachi hinterland. Equipment across the combined operation runs to 45 rubber-tyred gantries, roughly five to six gantry cranes per terminal, seven reach stackers and 82 internal transfer vehicles, with stacking capacity of around 33,000 TEU across the two yards and 636 fixed reefer stands. QICT also has direct connection to the national railway network with dedicated block train services and multi-user rail access, which is a genuine differentiator from the Karachi Port terminals. Two further points matter for planning. The first is distance: QICT is roughly 35 to 50 kilometres from central Karachi depending on where you measure from, and inland haulage costs and transit times reflect that. The second is that the two terminals function as a single facility for booking, customs and gate purposes despite their separate commissioning histories, so there is nothing to specify or track at that level. Maalbardaar handles clearance and delivery coordination for cargo discharged at QICT alongside its Karachi Port work.