/Agencia AFP
Companies from China will be able to participate in the tender to build two new ports in the Panama Canal, said the administrator of the interoceanic waterway, Ricaurte Vásquez, despite threats from the United States to retake its control.
This version contrasts with the statements of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who has claimed that the canal is under Beijing’s control because the Hong Kong company Hutchison Holdings operates the ports of Balboa (Pacific) and Cristóbal (Atlantic).
Amid these pressures, the company agreed to sell both terminals to a consortium led by the American BlackRock, but Beijing views the operation with distrust and now companies from the Asian giant want to secure the new port works.
“We have to be open to the participation of all interested parties,” the canal administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, told journalists.
“One crosses the bridge when one reaches the river, so we will first see how we get to the river and then we discuss that matter,” added Vásquez in response to a question from AFP about an escalation of tensions if the works are awarded to Chinese firms.
Next Monday a series of meetings with different consortia will begin as part of the process to award the construction of the ports of Corozal on the Pacific and Telfers on the Atlantic, the administrator announced.
Among the interested companies are the Hong Kong companies Cosco Shipping Ports and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL).
The canal plans to invest about $8.5 billion in the next decade to expand its business. In addition to the new ports, the project includes the construction of a gas pipeline and a new reservoir.
The administration plans to award the works for the two terminals in 2026 and begin operations in 2029.
Companies such as Singapore’s PSA International, Taiwan’s Evergreen, Germany’s Hapag Lloyd, Denmark’s Maersk, and France’s CMA Terminals–CMA have also shown interest.
The five main ports of Panama are close to the canal and are operated by concessionaires from the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
The 80-kilometer canal, whose main users are the United States and China, moves 5% of global maritime trade.
Washington ceded control of the route to Panama in 1977, after managing it for almost a century, and it finally passed into Panamanian hands on the last day of 1999.
