Port of Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) is a deep water port located in the Bay of Kampong Som and the country’s main port. It is used mainly for general cargo and container traffic and handles almost 70 percent all cargo. It was built in 1959 with a total capacity of 1.2 m tones and can accommodate ships of 10,000-15,000 tons deadweight. It has nine berths, a container terminal, a tanker terminal and an industrial effluent treatment plant. It is 1000 km from Singapore which is the major port of origin for containers bound for or originating from Cambodia.

Deep Water Port

It benefits from deep water inshore and is protected from the high waves and storms from a string of islands that lie across the mouth of the bay. Due to rocky outcrops in the approach channel, it currently handles vessels with a draft of less than 8.5m. However, that is going to change with a planned expansion with funding from the Japanese.

Expansion in the Works

A US$70 m expansion of the port has been announced add two new terminals, increase capacity for shipping containers and natural gas. The expansion plan calls for construction to start in 2011 and finish by 2014. The first terminal will occupy a 260-metre stretch of waterfront land with a depth of 13.5 metres and the second terminal will have a water depth of 7.5m and designed to store two million tones of natural gas. The expansion is calculated to create 200 more jobs.