Conglomerate plans US$200m capacity expansion for Cristobal terminal to cash in on growing volumes
Hutchison Port Holdings, one of the world's largest port operators controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, plans to spend US$200 million on its Panama facility to expand its handling capacity to 1.5 million containers annually - five times its present capacity.
The upgrading project would enable the port to handle post-Panamax vessels - ships of more than 100,000 gross revenue tonnes - and capitalise on growing volumes moving through an expanded Panama Canal.
The Panama Ports Co, 90 per cent owned by Hutchison Port Holdings, yesterday said Cristobal Port on the Atlantic end of the canal would become a 'megaport' and 'one of the most important hubs of transshipment of containers in the Caribbean'.
The widening of the waterway is still subject to approval from the Panamanian government. The plan calls for the construction of a 350-metre berth for post-Panamax vessels, which are too large to squeeze through the canal, as well as a 320-metre berth for canal-sized ships. There would also be an eight-hectare area for stacking containers, with 19 cranes.
Panamanian ports handle about 2.4 million containers a year, up from 286,000 in 1994.
Cristobal Port competes on the Atlantic coast with the expanding Manzanillo International Terminal and with a port owned by Taiwan conglomerate Evergreen.