Mexico’s Tuxpan Port Terminal starts operationsMexico’s Tuxpan Port Terminal starts operations

The $375m, 710,000 teu terminal is the first automated port to begin operations in Mexico. Tuxpan Port Terminal (TPT) is a subsidiary of Seattle-based SSA Marine.

The 2010-built 4,200 teu vessel CMA CGM Hammonia Venetia will make the maiden call at Tuxpan on 4 July.

The port’s 556 m long quay with a depth alongside of 15 metres makes it the only terminal on Mexico’s Gulf Coast able to receive New-Panamax vessels up to 14,000 teu. It was fully completed in 1Q 2016.

It also features 240 reefer plugs, a dedicated customs and agricultural inspection facility and a 33 hectare-yard to receive some 50,000 vehicles per year and has four super post-panamax cranes with an outreach of 23 containers wide.

Tuxpan is located on the Atlantic coast of Mexico, some 240km from the capital city in between the ports of Vera Cruz and Altamira, which are also on the CMA CGM Victory Bridge service.

“Tuxpan offers competitive edge in time, money and security which make us optimistic about its future,” TPT general manager John Bressi said.

The terminal will also be closer to El Bajio development centre, in the middle of the country, where are concentrated most of the automobile plants that will produce around 4m vehicles by 2017, the majority of them for exports.