Panama’s Manzanillo port to get $210 mln upgrade

 PANAMA CITY, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Panama’s busiest Caribbean port is to push ahead with a $210 million expansion project to help it deal with ever-bigger commercial vessels, the government said on Wednesday. Panama’s Maritime Authority said it will transfer control of more that 1.2 million square meters of land to the Manzanillo International Terminal, allowing the port’s owners to develop their facilities for increasingly popular mega-ships. These so-called ‘post-panamax’ vessels are currently too big to pass through the Panama canal, but their increased use has prompted Panama to embark on a $5.25 billion canal expansion program that is scheduled to be completed in 2014. (more)

Manzanillo, a popular transshipping center for car exports, is the latest Panamanian port to announce it will expand as a result of the canal expansion program. It currently has just two cranes which are able to deal with post-panamax vessels.

In 2006, Manzanillo handled the equivalent of 1.3 million containers, making it one of the busiest ports in Latin America. The port is owned by Seattle-based firm Carrix Inc and the Motta family, which owns Panama’s Copa airline (CPA.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Manzanillo has been operating at close to capacity and faces stiff completion from other Panamanian ports, most notably Evergreen Group’s Colon Container Terminal and Cristobal Port, which is run Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Limited (0013.HK: Quote, Profile, Research).

It was recently surpassed as Panama’s largest port by Balboa on the Pacific coast, which is also run by Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Limited. Balboa is currently undergoing an ambitious expansion plan that will make it the biggest port in Latin America by 2010. (Reporting by Andrew Beatty)

SOURCE: Don Winner @ Panama-guide.com