Australia's Babcock & Brown last week added a big port operator in the US to its growing list of shipping interests across the globe, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The acquisition of the general cargo operator ICS, based in Jacksonville, Florida, will allow B&B to expand its point-to-point shipping businesses. B&B indicated that it plans to significantly expand the operations of ICS, which has terminals in Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The announcement coincided with the Australian group's purchase of a 50% stake in the biggest operator in the port of Rostock, Germany, on the Baltic Sea.

The deal with Seehafen Rostock takes the number of B&B 's European port operators to seven after confirmation that last week's deal to buy into a Belgian company, Westerlund Group, was likely to result in it ending up with 100% control rather than below half. That purchase brings with it port operators in Antwerp, Belgium; Rouen, France, and Changshu,China.