In Guatemala, the Santo Tomás de Castilla National Port Company is putting out to tender a cargo weighing service by means of scales within the facilities of the institution, for a period of 60 months.
Guatemala Government Purchase 8626731:
"The requested servicesconsist of the weighing of trucks with loose cargo and full containers, using a truck scales platform. Six (6) scales must be provided, which meet the following specifications and technical characteristics:
In the first seven months of this year 2.4 million containers have moved through panamanian ports, 10% more than in the same period in 2016.
Preliminary figures from the Panama Maritime Authority show that between January and July of this year, 2,357,588 containers passed through Panamanian ports, equivalent to 3.9 million TEUs.
The global relevance of companies seeking the award of a third port for container ships in the Pacific is a clear sign of the importance of Panama as maritime and logistics hub.
The companies pre-qualified to participate in the tender for the concession of a new port in Corozal are subsidiaries of the largest shipping companies such as Maersk-Denmark, MSC-Italy and CMA-CGM-France or are direct port operators, in this case the most important in the world, PSA from Singapore.
The main problem reported is the lack of dredging, which has even led to decreased cargo loads so that ships do not end up touching the seabed.
The last dredging operation was carried out in 2009, and the volume of sediment accumulated since then has been estimated at 120 thousand cubic meters.
An article on Crhoy.com reports that "... other than the lack of a dredging plan, shippers are complaining about the lack of equipment in the limonenses ports, which has forced ships to spend more time on the docks and there are delays. "
In the first quarter of 2014 cargo movement went up by 6.8% compared to the same period of 2013, after almost two years of decline.
Capital.com.pa reports that " ... the Panamanian Atlantic ports which are Colon Container Terminal (CCT) , Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) and Christobal, operated by the Panama Ports Company (PPC), a member of the HPH Group, moved 501,747 containers in total, putting them in second place in the regional ranking for 2014 " ... behind the Port of Santos, Brazil.
The aim is to optimize the entry and exit of cargo at the container terminal where there have been long lines and delays in procedures.
After some problems arose last week, executives from Operadora Portuaria de Centroamérica (OPC) pledged to streamline the procedures for the entry and exit of cargo at Empresa Nacional Portuaria.
Mariano Torres, director of operations at OPC said that "we are working on making the export formalities available to be processed via the web because that would halve the amount of paperwork at terminal for shipping companies." It is estimated that the system will be ready next week.
Carriers have blocked the entry and exit of cargo as a protest against the Honduran National Port Company (Empresa Nacional Portuaria de Honduras).
From Tuesday 25 cargo carriers have kept access to the Port of Honduras blocked in protest at the slow service and new charges. The export sector is concerned about the condition of goods which need to be sold as soon as possible in the U.S. market to ensure their quality.
The increase in the export of sugar containers offset a decline in dry bulk cargo in 2013.
In 2013 the port of Acajutla in El Salvador recorded the movement of 179,303 TEUs, while in 2012 159,879 TEUs were recorded, which represents growth of 12 %.
"This growth can also be expressed in terms of the cargo that arrives inside containers. Roberto Mendoza, manager of the Port of Acajutla, explained that in this case the annual growth was 17.9%.
In 2013 maritime cargo decreased by 4.3 % compared to 2012, which had already registered less cargo than in 2011.
In 2013 6 million 561 thousand TEUs (20-foot unit length) passed through Panamanian maritime terminals, 4.3 % less compared with 2012, the equivalent of 296,000 fewer containers.
Willys Delvalle, president of the Panama Maritime Chamber believes that the situation is worrying.
Port workers hindered the use of private forklifts for unloading ships carrying fruit.
The measures taken by the Union of Workers of Japdeva (Sintrajap) could cause a boat being delayed by up to 32 hours in the port and overall operations to fall behind.
Nacion.com reports that "workers are complaining that there are more than 35 damaged trucks which are have been abandoned for over a year and there is no investment in new equipment." Currently there are only 15 pieces of equipment used for loading and unloading goods.
Port sector entrepreneurs are advocating legal mechanisms to prevent the stoppage of work at ports due to workers strikes.
The latest labor dispute which took place in Manzanillo port in Panama and its impact on the logistics industry is not far removed from other countries in the region.
Maritime industry representatives agree on the serious risk posed by strikes to the development of Panama as a logistics center.
Logistics is the system of veins and arteries through which global trade flows, and the ports are the heart of this system; a strike has the same impact as a heart attack in a human being.
An article in Prensa.com states: "What should be ceaseless port activity has become bogged down. Nothing is worse for a production system, and is even more worrying when it affects to the logistics industry.
Between January and August, 4.40379 million TEUs were moved whereas the same period in 2012 the amount was 4,624,124 TEUs.
"The decline in port activity is attributed to the global crisis, but particularly to the decrease in sales from the Colon Free Zone to Venezuela and Colombia, the main customers of this zone," reports Prensa.com.
The only ports to register increases were PSA (Panama International Terminal), which operates in Rodman and Colon Container Terminal in Colon.
Between January and May this year 2,672,194 TEUs were transported while in the same period in 2012 the number was 2,895,544 TEUs.
Daniel Isaza, president of the Business Logistics Council (Coel), said that "from 2011 to 2012 growth went from 6.7 million TEUs to 6.8 million TEUs, for the end of 2013 we had expected growth in containers, but we all know that it will not happen. "
The Panamanian port system saw a decrease from 2,325,000 TEUs in the first quarter of 2012 to 2,079,000 TEUs in the same period of 2013.
"The decline in container cargo movement is attributed to the economic crisis in Europe and the U.S., as well as the fall in trade between the largest South American economies: Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil," noted an article in Prensa.com .