MANZANILLO, COL.- The Government of Mexico is on the verge of announcing the New Manzanillo , which will become one of the major infrastructure projects of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s six-year term.
This is the expansion of the port of Manzanillo towards the Cuyutlán Lagoon, which has an area of water and land four times larger than the current port area , and which is expected to meet the constant growth rate of demand for movement of goods, mainly imports, which on several occasions has exceeded the supply of private infrastructure and logistics services.
“This work is specifically designed for the handling of containers, (with) terminals specialized in the handling of containers and hydrocarbons,” said Julieta Juárez, Commercial Director of the Administration of the National Port System (Asipona) Manzanillo .
Among the information that the official provided to a small group of journalists is that, in a first phase of construction, Nuevo Manzanillo will consider two specialized container terminals , a perimeter wall, facilities for a new customs office, internal roads and the interconnection with the railroad.
A second phase of construction would add two more specialized container terminals.
“ CFE (Federal Electricity Commission) is also working on a very important energy supply project that will guarantee that our port (Nuevo Manzanillo) is supplied with electricity as much as needed,” said Juárez.
He also stated that the Asipona Manzanillo is currently studying the depth of the navigation channels of the Cuyutlán Lagoon, where it is expected to have a draft of at least 18 meters or, if it does not reach this level, to begin dredging works.
This would allow Nuevo Manzanillo to handle larger vessels than those currently docking at the port with a length of almost 400 meters that require a draft of 15 meters.
“We are not going to leave aside the port of Manzanillo, the port of Manzanillo will continue to grow,” said Juárez.
On November 23, Claudia Sheinbaum , President of Mexico, is expected to give the green light to start construction of Nuevo Manzanillo, a project that had been planned for years by various federal governments.
Port data
During the first 10 months of this year, the port of Manzanillo, the largest commercial port in the country, had accumulated the handling of three million 252 thousand 635 20-foot containers (TEU for its acronym in English) , which meant a growth of 6.6% compared to the same period last year, according to Asipona statistics.
Regarding the origin of this activity, imports accounted for 43% , exports 42% and transshipments represented 15%.
In fact, during October the record for monthly TEU operations for the year was reached, with 340,837 containers.
In addition, in the period from January to October 2024, the port of Manzanillo has received a total of 1,454 vessels , of which 936 have been container ships, which corresponds to 64 percent.
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