SAPT

South Asia Pakistan Terminals is the facility whose name causes the most consistent confusion in Pakistani logistics, and the confusion is worth correcting before anything else. Nothing in "South Asia Pakistan Terminals" indicates location, and the word "Pakistan" in the title leads people to assume Port Qasim — the port named after Muhammad bin Qasim, the country's second major port. SAPT is at Karachi Port, in the Keamari Groyne basin, roughly 35 kilometres from Port Qasim. It does not appear in Port Qasim Authority's own listing of facilities operating there. If a booking names SAPT, the cargo is going to Keamari.

The terminal was developed under a build-operate-transfer arrangement between Hutchison Ports Pakistan and Karachi Port Trust, structured as 25 years extendable by a further 25. The total project cost is put at around $1.4 billion, split between roughly $600 million from Hutchison for terminal development and handling technology and over $350 million from KPT for reclamation and dredging — a division that explains why the deep-water capability is credited to the port authority's dredging programme rather than to the operator alone. Operations began in 2016. It was Pakistan's first purpose-built deep-water container terminal, and the distinction is real rather than promotional: everything preceding it was built to depths that ruled out the largest vessel classes.

On specifications SAPT is the most transparent of the three Karachi container terminals, publishing its own figures directly. Quay length is 1,500 metres divided into four berths of 375 metres each, on a yard of approximately 85 hectares, with a 720-metre turning basin and permissible draft of 16 metres — sufficient for vessels up to 24,000 TEU or 400 metres length overall. Some secondary sources cite draft as deep as 18 metres; the operator's own published figure is 16, and that is the one to plan against. Equipment counts of 16 quay cranes and 52 rubber-tyred gantries appear consistently in secondary reporting but are not stated on the operator's specification page, so treat them as reported rather than confirmed. Designed annual capacity is 3.1 million TEU, and this is where the more useful operational fact sits: reporting through 2025 and 2026 put actual throughput at roughly 1.5 to 1.6 million TEU, or about half of design. SAPT is not a capacity-constrained facility, which distinguishes it sharply from the older terminals in the same port. In May 2026 the 400-metre, 19,224 TEU MSC Erica berthed there, demonstrating the ultra-large-vessel handling the 16-metre draft was built for. Day to day, the operationally relevant features are 1,500 reefer plugs served by the terminal's own powerhouse, an on-site examination facility described as the region's largest, and an off-dock rail link handling something over 200 import and export containers weekly for cleared cargo. Maalbardaar files and clears cargo discharged at SAPT.