Guayaquil dredging project starts
The government of Guayaquil in Ecuador recently led the signing of a 25-year concession agreement with Luxembourg-based Jan De Nul Group for the deepening and maintenance of the 95-kilometer long access channel leading to the port of Guayaquil.
With dredging works expected to be completed within the first year of the concession, mega vessels will soon be able to enter the Port of Guayaquil – guaranteeing a new authorized draft of 12.5 meters at high tide, and 7.5 meters at the Guayas River. The “Los Goles,” a famous rock causing a bottleneck in the offshore section of the channel, will also be removed.
Contecon Guayaquil SA (CGSA), the Ecuadorian subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), welcomes the recent signing of the dredging concession, which will “ensure the progress not only of Guayaquil, whose ports will be directly benefited, but of the entire Ecuador.”
Jose Antonio Contreras, CGSA chief executive officer, said that the dredging of the Guayaquil channel further boosts the terminal’s operational capabilities, being the only port in the country capable of berthing two post-Panamax vessels simultaneously: “[CGSA] should be able to strengthen its position as the country’s preferred port of call in the Pacific coast that has a deeper access channel, allowing the entry of the world’s largest box ships. We look forward to the arrival of neo-Panamax box ships since the terminal is ready to handle these new generation vessels.”
Contecon Guayaquil is ICTSI’s largest port concession in Latin America with a handling capacity of up to 1.4-million twenty equivalent-foot units (TEUs) annually.
More than 12 million tons of products, or nearly 85 percent of goods imported and exported from Ecuador pass through the Port of Guayaquil, it being in close proximity to export zones and agricultural areas.
Dredging project to begin. Signing the agreement are (from left to right); Jorge Aurelio Hidalgo, Ecuador Minister of Transport and Public Works; Jaime Nebot, Mayor of Guayaquil; and Jan Neckebroeck, Area Manager of the Jan De Nul Group. Photo from the Autoridad Portuario de Guayaquil.
About CGSA
In March 2007, ICTSI was awarded by the port authority of Guayaquil, Autoridad Portuario de Guayaquil (APG), a 20-year operating concession for the Container and Multipurpose Terminals in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Later in May, a contract was formally signed between APG and Contecon Guayaquil SA, ICTSI’s local operating unit. The terminal handles containerized, general and bulk cargo. (www.cgsa.com.ec)
About ICTSI
Headquartered and established in 1988 in Manila, Philippines, International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is in the business of port development, management and operations. As an independent business with no shipping, logistics or consignee-related interests, ICTSI works and transacts transparently with any stakeholder in the port community. ICTSI’s portfolio of terminals and projects spans developed and emerging market economies in the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. ICTSI has received global acclaim for its public-private partnerships with governments divesting of their port assets to the private sector. (www.ictsi.com)