Sociedad Puerto Industrial Aguadulce will reinforce its port operations with the incorporation of new yard equipment, which will materialize by the end of 2026.
Álvaro Otero, general manager of the company, told El País that “we are expanding yards, we are growing capacity. More yard cranes are coming at the end of this year. These investments are long-term and our commitment as a concessionaire is to have an investment plan until the end of the concession.”
In the context of the ten years of operations that Sociedad Puerto Industrial Agua Dulce has completed, the executive explained that “we have great technological support, knowledge, and experience in terminal management. And let’s say all of that was injected into the project so that it would be world-class. We were the first to implement a series of technologies, safety techniques, and a series of things that were done at the time and remain at the forefront.”
“We brought four gantry cranes. In that period we began to receive the largest ships that were arriving in Colombia. They are not 24,000, but they are 16,000 or 17,000 TEU, we are talking about 366 meters in length. We handled the largest ship, which is 400 meters. That is the largest ship that has ever been handled in Colombia,” Otero emphasized.
“Recently, this year, we received two more cranes that are the tallest in South America, that is thinking about the future. It is a bet much further ahead because the ships that those cranes can handle cannot yet reach Buenaventura. But we are thinking much further ahead,” stated the general manager.
Regarding the port’s position compared to other facilities in the Latin American region, the executive stated that “in general it has some favorable things, some important terminals. Our terminal has a series of advantages, a few months ago the largest cranes in South America arrived. We are the only terminal in South America that can currently handle 24,000 TEU ships. What is the difficulty? The access channel because these very large ships cannot enter Buenaventura. So there we have the first difficulty.”
“The second difficulty is road connectivity. Approximately 50% of Colombia’s imports enter through Buenaventura. That is, through a street that is the width of two small lanes, half of the country’s cargo enters. We need to grow, to have much wider roads. That should be a three-lane highway, at least, on each side,” he stated.
“Both maritime access and land access are limited and we have some basic needs such as the aqueduct, electricity, and clearly security is very important. These disadvantages that I am mentioning, many ports in South America do not have them,” Otero stated.
