Works to restart on Panama Canal, agreement still not reached

The ACP said GUPC had agreed to restart work on the third set of locks for the expanded canal, after they downed tools on 5 February over a $1.6bn cost overruns dispute.

Once works have restarted ACP said it would pay $36.8m for December invoices to ensure that GUPC cancels pending payments and obligations to suppliers.

Although the decision to restart works was made in a teleconference between the Panama authority and the ceos of members of the GUPC consortium there are still a number of outstanding issues on which agreement could not be reached.

Over the next 72 hours the parties will discuss points that that ACP said include the dates for the delivery of the lock gates, an implementation schedule for the remainder of the works, a timetable of repayment moratorium and other key aspects for the project’s development.

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