Mega port will change the Caribbean
Dutch APM Terminals, from the maritime giant Maersk, finishes in Costa Rica an 885 million Euro job
They are 40 hectares of an artificial island, 1,000 million Dollar (885 million Euro) of invest and one ambition: to change the Caribbean maritime traffic. Dutch multinational APM Terminals, subsidiary of the Danish giant sea cargo Maersk, opened last week in Costa Rica a port resort promising a Central American Cargo market new revolution. Placed besides the strategical Panama Chanel, Moín new container terminal (TCM) allows the mooring of biggest ships using this planet point to cross over between Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.
First actuations at the installation, built over an artificial island in front of Moín beach, within Limón province, started last November, eight years after Costa Rican Government gave licence to APM terminals for its use for the next three decades. After 10 years of hard bargaining with the port state labour union, legal objections, pressure and private sector expectations, and technical difficulties that got delays, the Dutch company finally began their services promising to generate “a radical change in a strategic region”, according to APM Terminals CEO, Morten Engelstoft. They have methods and technologies proben that will allow the port terminal to become soon the most efficient from Latin America and to generate business that could impact on present routes, says the executive.
With this new private terminal, Costa Rica will reduce from 40 to 15 hours of average time attending every boat and will fit, without transfers, post panamax ships operations, which dimensions (320 m-Length and 33 m-Wide) allow them to transport up to 8,000 containers just in one round far away from 2,500 that the ships arriving up to now in Limón maximum cope with. Shortening times will also cause the reduction of logistics costs within local market, projects the company. It will open an alternative for Shipping companies aiming for the iconic Panama Chanel, a giant engineering job redefines worldwide map of maritime loading by the beginning of last century.
Moín works employed 650 workers, but a study foresees next decade could generate up to 147,000 undirect jobs. Nevertheless, this effect will depend on the Government and other economics actors stay true to their promises about road and rail connectivity, pointed out Federico Villalobos, expert economist on infrastructures and Costa Rica Deloitte member. “This goes down in history as Intel (Pc manufacture) did when arrived at the country in 1997 to install a component manufacture centre. But, at the same time, it brings big institutional challenges to take advantage of the port possibilities”- highlighted the specialist, aware that infrastructure is one of the mayor weakness related to the Centro American country when talking about competitiveness.
Big Figures
The Island. The first phase of Moín Container Terminal project, has costed around 1,000 million Dollar, consisted of creating a 40-hectare island at 500 m away from the Caribbean cost.
The terminal. The terminal covers around 80 hectares with a dock of 650 meters and 14.5 m-Deep. The channel access is of 18 m-Deep. It is equipped by 29 cranes for electric containers and six gantry cranes ‘super-post panamax’, the terminal could handle container ships up to 8.500 TEU.
Exportation. A determinate factor for the terminal activity is refrigerated exportations, mainly of bananas and pineapples produced locally. Costa Rica is, according to the Inter-American development bank, the 4th worldwide exporter of bananas and the 1st one of pineapples.
(Source: El País)