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2006
2006, June 28: As plans to expand the Panama
Canal are being studied and as Kingston and Cartagena move ahead in a bid to
become top players in in Regional transshipment business, all of Panama's major
ports are in expansion mode .
Manzanillo International Terminal
reportedly handled 1.58 TEU last year, 8.3% more than the previous year. Over
80% of this was transshipment containers. The port has won the CSA’s Container
Terminal of the Year Award on a number of occasions, most recently in 2004.
Demand for berthing space at Manzanillo has outstripped availability and the
port has lost some business to Cartagena, which won the CSA’s Container Terminal
Award in 2005, and to Kingston. However, construction of an additional 400
metres of berth, increasing total berthing to 1,650 metres will alleviate the
problem. On January 20 this year, MIT took possession of six Super Post-Panamax
Gantry cranes, becoming the first port in Latin America to get cranes able to
work container vessels with up to 22 containers across. The cranes were built by
the Shanghai-based Zhenhua Port Machinery Co (ZPMC). Three of the cranes can
move 18 containers across, while the other three are built to work up to 22
containers across. These Gantry cranes were part of the new equipment purchased by
MIT as part of its $250m expansion programme that will double capacity over the
next five years.
The Cristóbal terminal has already increased
capacity, adding two new berths and expanding capacity to handle 1.5 million TEU,
up from 250,000 TEU, at a cost of USD200 million. The new berths can handle
Panamax vessels up to 350 m in length. Cristóbal presently has 10 gantry cranes
and 19 RTGs among other equipment in its cargo-handling inventory. Plans are for
further expansion by 2015 with its operators, Panama Ports Co, a subsidiary of
global port operator Hutchison, expecting 2.5 million TEU of container business
by that time.
Colón Container Terminal, operated by Evergreen,
also plans expansion. It has access to an extra 18 hectares of land, which will
allow it to increase capacity to 1.2 million TEU. (In 2005, cargo throughput was
800,000 TEU.) This will require an investment of USD300 million. China's Cosco
Group has chosen Colón for its transhipment hub for Caribbean cargo and the
terminal has reportedly also been attracting new business from Zim.
Read also:
"Kingston still on track to be biggest in the hemisphere.."
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