Delays to the expansion of the Panama Canal could bring opportunities for APM Terminal’s container terminal project in Moín Costa Rica. The project was due to be completed in June 2015, but a cost dispute with the constructors have pushed back the date to December 2015.
“The delay in the canal expansion fits very well with the opening of Moín a year and a half later,” Joe Nielsen, APMT’s Latin American director told BNamericas.
APMT, which has invested more than US$1bn in the project, was awarded a 33-year concession to design, build, operate and maintain TCM by the Costa Rica government in 2011.
The new facility will have an initial annual throughput of 1.3m TEUs, rising to 2.7m TEUs at full build-out. With an eventual depth of 18 meters, it will be able to accommodate the 12,000 TEU vessels that will pass through the widened Panama Canal once the lock expansion project has been completed in 2015. At present, the port is limited to vessels of 2,500 TEU capacity.
The extension of the Panama Canal will create a new lane of traffic and allow a higher volume and larger ships to pass through the canal, Currently, the biggest containerships that can pass through the canal have a capacity of 5,100 TEU but once the work is completed the canal will be able to accommodate 13,000 TEU ships.
