Panama port container volumes up 4.7% in 2019

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Panama throughput reached 7.35m teu 2019, up 4.7% compared with the year before when cargo volumes showed a slight growth of 1.7% to 7.01m teu.

“In 2018, Panamanian ports hit the 7m teu  milestone for the first time and just last year cargo volumes increased by 4.7% to 7.34m teu of cargo volumes, making 2019 the best port performance,” said Noriel Arauz, administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) and Minister of Maritime Affairs. “We expect this positive trend to continue in 2020,” he added.

 MIT, on the Atlantic side, and PSA-Panama International Terminal, on the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, were the only terminals posting increases of 14.3% and 60.1% respectively. MIT increased cargo volumes to 2.54m teu, its best year so far as the terminal is celebrating 25 years of operations.  PSA-Panama International Terminal, fell short of obtaining its first million teu posting 974,654 teu, a big increase from the 608,906 teu moved in 2018, its first year of operation.

The Port of Balboa saw its throughput drop by 6.3% in 2019 to 1.92m in 2019, down from 2.05m teu the year before while Cristobal, on the Atlantic side, fell 18% to 1.05m teu compared to 1.28m teu in 2018.

Arauz announced a tender for the Design and Construction of a new multipurpose pier in Puerto Armuelles.  Puerto Armuelles is located on the Pacific side, in the west-northern province of Chiriqui, close to the border with Costa Rica.

This future new 285m-international pier will contribute to economic dynamism and above all, “will provide the boost needed by the maritime sector of the province of Chiriqui," said Arauz. “We expect that between December 2022 and January 2023, the new international pier will 100% operational,” said the AMP Administrator.