The time and cost of maritime routes between Costa Rica and China, and the capacity that the food industry develops to take advantage of existing opportunities, are factors that in the coming years will influence the evolution of the FTA signed between the two countries.
Ten years after the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between China and Costa Rica, Costa Rican authorities assure that they are in a continuous negotiation process involving the National Animal Health Service (Senasa) and the State Phytosanitary Service (SFE).
Due to the imbalance in world trade flows, shipping lines have changed their routes and prefer to move empty containers to Asia, a situation that generates shortages and causes increases in freight rates and raw material prices.
In this scenario of new commercial reality, the operating costs of maritime freight have been impacted, since due to the restrictions imposed in several countries around the world, containers have been stranded.
After the Quetzal Port Company of Guatemala and the Port of Chiapas, Mexico, signed an agreement for strategic commercial promotion, it is expected that in May the short sea route will begin to operate.
The potential offered by the Port of Chiapas as a logistic node for commercial exchange from and to Central America, as well as with other international markets, makes it a strategic place for the promotion of the Short Sea Shipping (SSS) project with Guatemala and eventually with other Mesoamerican countries, informed the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT).
In Costa Rica, exporters insist that rates be renegotiated at the Moin Container Terminal, since currently the cost of moving a container at that terminal exceeds by about $207 what was paid at the Japdeva docks.
Because of the lower-than-projected volume of cargo shipped on the September and October services, the maritime route between Port Moin and Shanghai was suspended.
Costa Rican exporters are negotiating to change the frequency of the maritime route between Port Moin and Shanghai from monthly to weekly from February 2020.
Since mid-July, the main companies transporting maritime cargo from the Port of Santa Tomas in Guatemala stopped operating the direct route to Europe, which will raise between 20% and 25% the costs of imports and exports.
After six decades of keeping the direct route to European ports in operation, the main shipping companies departing from Puerto Santo Tomás de Castilla in Izabal such as Maersk, Hamburg Sud, MSC, CMA-CGM, Hapas Lloyd and Sea Trade, decided not to re-operate the route concerned, leaving only one company with a multipurpose transport ship as an option to move cargo to Europe.
The construction of an oil pipeline and a maritime terminal in the Pacific for the transfer and storage of fuels, are some of the projects planned to develop the state-owned Recope in the next eight years in Costa Rica.
The construction of a new plant for storage and sale of clean products in Liberia, and the polyduct connecting this plant with Barranca, is one of the large-scale projects that the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (Recope) plans to develop in the coming years.
In order to minimize some of the impact that the Nicaraguan crisis has had on intraregional trade, the governments of Costa Rica and El Salvador have announced that they are now in a position to start ferry operations.
After unsuccessfully trying to implement this maritime cargo transport option, in May of last year the Spanish shipping company Odiel decided to end the negotiation process to operate the ferry, due to a disagreement over the setting of tariffs that would have to be charged for the service. Since then, the project has been forgotten.
From May 7 to May 11, 2018 companies working in the international maritime industry will be gathering together in Panama City to discuss technical, economic and environmental issues related to water transport infrastructure.
From May 7 to 12, 2018, Panama will host the 34th World Congress of the World Association of Aquatic Transport Infrastructures (PIANC).
A new service connects the Guatemalan port with the east coast of the United States, Europe and the Mediterranean, through the port of Caucedo, in the Dominican Republic.
From a statement issued by Agexport:
Derived from the need of the Guatemalan export sector to transport goods in a reduced time of four days, in a more efficient manner, to the Caribbean market, the country's logistics chain has a new service that connects to the port of Santo Tomás de Castilla in the Atlantic with the East Coast of the United States, Europe and the Mediterranean through the port of Caucedo, in the Dominican Republic.
Due to a disagreement over the rates that should be charged for the service, the Spanish shipping company Odiel has ended the negotiation process to operate the ferry.
The project which was announced with great fanfare by the Solís administration almost two years ago, failed to make any progress due to the need to modify the regulation on multimodal transport service, and now the operator who was interested in providing the Service, Naviera Odiel, has decided to withdraw from the negotiations, because an agreement on tariffs could not be reached.
From July 25 to 28 representatives from the port industry in the region will be meeting in Belize at the XXXIX Port Meeting of the Central American Isthmus.
At the event, to be held at the Best Westerm Biltmore Plaza Hotel in Belize, the main discussion panels will address current issues such as the Cruise Industry, Mobility and Logistics Policy in Central America, Strengthening Environmental Port Management in Central America, Multilateral Agreement And Safety, Port Security and Protection, Gross Verified Mass (GVM), Climate Change and the Role of Women in the Port Industry, among others.
With the entry into operation of the new locks, the Panama Canal is beginning to regain market lost in recent years to the Suez Canal.
60% of vessels transporting cargo between Asia and the United States now passes through the new locks, up from 40% earlier this year. Until the opening of the expanded canal, this market share of maritime cargo went through the Suez Canal.
The shipping company has drawn attention to the impact that the Canal expansion will have on its operations noting that there are still only a few ports that can receive Post Panamax vessels.
The two routes that the Danish shipping company Maersk Line ceased to operate in 2013 were of great importance for Latin America, whose operations account for 10% of the company's total sales worldwide.