Panama has a strong showing in the Port Industry
By Juan Carlos Martinez
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Panama is right after Brazil, where these two ports showed the largest movement of cargo in 2009, in spite of showing overall figures of a slight decrease from last year. These figures were commissioned for an economic study, conducted by the “Economic Commission for Latin America” last year for the Panamanian port system.
This year is already looking up for the Panamanian ports for there is increased cargo movement from the Far East towards Latin America. Manzanillo International Terminal expects a positive outlook for 2010 as it is already registering growth in the first quarter of this year. Other Panamanian ports prefer to wait until the numbers of the second quarter are in before expressing their satisfaction.
Part of the success of the Panama ports system lies in investment and constant upgrading of equipment. While most port operators canceled or postponed their investment plans due to the economic turbulence of 2008 and 2009, Panama Ports Company went ahead and bought 4 port cranes that are super post Panamax for the Balboa Container Terminal in Panama City, Pacific side. These are the biggest cranes currently manufactured in the world. They extend 61 meters from port to sea and can service container vessels 22 rows wide (22 container rows). These are the biggest container vessels that sail the seas today. In total Balboa Container Terminal has 22 port cranes, including the 3 super post Panamax, making it the port in Panama and Latin America with the most port cranes, allowing faster unloading of vessels and less port time.
Manzanillo Terminal in Colon on the Atlantic side, operated by SSA Marine, is not far behind. It also has 3 super post Panamax port cranes. In total Manzanillo has 14 port cranes divided into 2 Panamax, 6 post Panamax, 3 super post Panamax for 18 rows and 3 super post Panamax for 22 rows.
The other port in Colon, Cristobal also operated by Panama Ports has 6 port cranes making Panama Ports the port company with more port cranes in the Republic of Panama. In addition to investing in equipment Panama Ports is also investing in infrastructure by adding dock space. In Balboa on the Pacific side the company is adding 450 meters of dock space for container ships, which should be finished by the end of 2010 and in Cristobal it is adding 360 meters of dock space for these same ships to be ready in 2011.
Another port operator, Port Singapur Authority, will join in when the Rodman container port's first phase, on the Pacific side, is ready to start operations by the end of this year with 330 meters of dock space and 3 port cranes. Rodman is located just across the Bridge of the Americas.
Port operators in Panama have chosen to keep investing in spite of a tough 2009 simply because 80% of world cargo is handled through ports and Panama is an important cargo hub for America.
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