The proposal is to extend by 20 years the concession of the container terminal at Puerto Coco Solo to Colon Container Company, which plans to invest $90 million in its expansion.
From a statement issued by the Presidency of Panama:
A bill, which seeks to grant an extension for 20 years to the contract for the development of Container Terminal in the Port of Coco Solo Norte, province of Colon, was presented today by the Minister of the Presidency, Alvaro Alemán to the National Assembly.
The new 340 meters quay that the concessionaire Colon Container Terminal has started to operate has capacity to accommodate up to 22 rows of vessels.
The dock required an investment of $150 million and has increased port capacity by 500 thousand TEUs, bringing the total capacity of the port to 2 million TEUs.
A statement from the Presidency of Panama states that "...
Cargo movement at ports rose only 10%, because other items such as containers and general cargo registered decreases.
Container cargo decreased 10.5% between January and May 2009 when compared to the same period of 2008, the largest drop among all port sectors. General cargo and 20 feet container movement also decreased, 3.3% and 3.7% respectively.
The Taiwanese Container Terminal in Colon has asked the Panamanian government to expand the concession for its container yard.
According to the proposal, the company would get 12 additional acres in concession to convert them into a container yard, thereby increasing current capacity of 700,00 to 1.5 million containers.
With the new project, the company would have a total of 18.4 hectares in concession.
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