Port of Charleston gets ready for the Panama Canal expansion

U.S. East Coast ports are rushing to upgrade aging infrastructure to serve cargo carried by post-Panamax ships expected to make their way after the Panama Canal expansion concludes.

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The Western Coast of the United States has always been known for its historically bustling ports and empire of cargo ships and manufacturing industry. However, in 2014 many are predicting a major shift from the West Coast ports to East Coast ports. The shipping industry has recently made a move towards bigger ships. These mega container ships are called “post-panamax” ships because of their larger size. This large size also prevents these ships from safely navigating the Panama Canal forcing shipping and unloading to occur mostly on the Western ports of the United States. Due to an Oct. 22, 2006 referendum, Panamanians approved the Panama Canal Expansion Project which will add a third set of locks allowing the Panama Canal to handle the so called “post-panamax” ships safely and other ships that are more than twice as large as today’s ships easily. This widening of the Panama Canal will promote many shipping companies to make a move from the overcrowded Western ports to the now easily accessible and more efficient ports of the East Coast.

The South Carolina Port Authority is currently preparing for this invasion of giant cargo ships. Already, there are plans in the works to expand the port of Charleston. Also the South Carolina Port Authority has stated that the Charleston port is already “big-ship ready” with a harbor capable of handling up to 47 feet of draft. In fact the Charleston port has already handled one of the world’s biggest ships, the MSC Rita. The MSC Rita steamed into port in February of 2010 with a nearly 48-foot draft and is capable of carrying about 8,100 20-foot-long shipping containers. The South Carolina Port Authority has also stated that the expansion will not just be a simple add-on to the port but the expansion will be with long-term goals for the future of the Charleston port in mind. The South Carolina Port Authority has already received federal funding in order to do more reconnaissance and study to further deepen the port even more for future heavy cargo ships to easily pass through the port. The Charleston port is gearing up for a surge of incoming ships in 2014 due to the widening of the Panama Canal but the Port Authority is on top of everything, assuring industrial leaders that Charleston will be ready.

Source: Charleston Industrial http://www.charleston industrial.com

See also:
Charleston, rest of port industry awaits Panama Canal expansion
Trade conference covers Panama Canal, labor updates
Southern Carolina International Trade Conference - Sep 9-11, 2013

Panama Canal calling on companies interested in building observation deck

The Panama Canal Authority seeks expressions of interest for the construction of an observation deck at the third set of locks of the expanded Panama Canal, Pacific Sector.
Proposals are expected from architecture and engineering companies.

Widening of Panama Canal results in more spending elsewhere

The $5.25 billion being spent on widening of the Panama Canal is only the beginning of expenditures in the rush to accommodate giant container ships. Billions more dollars will be spent in the United States, as ports rush to expand facilities to receive the post-panamax ships passing through when the expansion is completed in 2014, one hundred years after it first opened.

Panama has been hosting delegations or port authorities and logistics experts from New York to Miami, including Savannah, and Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Jacksonville Florida.

The widening will lead to the biggest shift in the freight business since the 1950s, when ships first started using giant containers of equal size.

Some of the ships known as post-Panamax can carry three times as many containers as the largest ships currently making the 48 mile transit.


The widening will also allow the U.S. Navy to transit some of its super sized aircraft carriers that currently have to make the long haul around the cape.

The expansion will enable products made in Asia to be sent directly to the East Coast instead of being unloaded on the West Coast and then sent east by train or truck.

A result could be a shift in business worth billions of dollars to ports, and big savings for companies like Ikea, Home Depot and Wal-Mart, always on the hunt for more efficient ways to serve shoppers in the Eastern third of the United States, where a majority of the U.S. population lives.

To capture some of the new traffic, almost every large East Coast port and those along the Gulf of Mexico have projects under way. Some ports that are too small to handle the giant ships are improving railroads and truck routes, making them more efficient in anticipation of an overall increase in the number of containers coming to the East says the New York Times.

Others want to dig deeper channels and become the leading port in their regions for companies operating the big vessels.

Containers have become the name of the game in shipping says a lead article. Although cruise ships and imports and exports of cars, oil and bulk agricultural loads like cotton and fertilizer still make up a good portion of port traffic, most of the growth is in containers filled with products that Americans like to buy.

The newest, biggest ships can carry the equivalent of as many as 15,000 containers that are 20 feet long. But they are also heavier, wider and require deeper water. In Savannah, for example, the water is only 42 feet deep. That is enough, with tidal variations, to handle ships loaded with 5,500 containers.

The port at Norfolk, Va., is 50 feet deep, and is the only one on the East Coast that can handle the biggest, fully loaded container ships.

The navigation channel that feeds the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey is deep enough, but the Bayonne Bridge is not tall enough for the new container ships to pass under.

Officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are studying options. They might raise the bridge by 64 feet. A study estimated the cost at $1.3 billion.

As Savannah port officials are learning, digging up six feet of mud is not easy or cheap. Environmentalists are concerned that dredging will cause historic Savannah buildings along the shore to tumble into the water, suck sand from the shores of Tybee Island and ruin freshwater marshes.

The Corps of Engineers' environmental impact document, issued after a 14 yearstudy, suggested deepening but not widening the channel to protect the buildings along the shore and adding 3,000 acres of wildlife preservation land to help offset the impact on freshwater marshes.
http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2010/12/13/panama-canal-expansion-to-bring-major-benefits/

Birdwatching online in the Panama Canal

One of the Panama Canal inhabitants had a cameo appearance in the Canal webcam which can be seen in the At Panama - Soluciones' Home Page to Panama links http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/4245.

The webcam faces the ships crossing Miraflores locks and occasionally we get to see a gem such as a bird peeking into the camera lens. While Panama is known as the home of the harpy eagle which also crowns the national coat of arms, the harrier (or gavilan Circus buffoni) is very prevalent.

Support by private individuals and businesses is crucial to keeping these and other animals alive when faced with the end of their environment from increased construction. The following NGOs are recognized by the Panama Ministry of Economy as non-profit organizations and donations to them are tax-deductible when listed in https://www.dgi.gob.pa/ttd_ong_fundaciones.asp :

8-NT-1-22532 2 PATRONATO PARQUE NATURAL METROPOLITANO http://www.parquemetropolitano.org/en/donaciones/index.html
4362-2-15019 74 PATRONATO AMIGOS DEL AGUILA ARPIA http://www.aguilaharpia.org/
541-25-2179 71 SOCIEDAD AUDOBON DE PANAMA http://www.panamaaudubon.org/
171473-1-16952 35 FUNDACION FONDO PEREGRINO PANAMA http://www.fondoperegrino.org/

3032-2-11346 26 FUNDACION HUMANITAS http://www.fundacionhumanitas.org/
536332-1-19943 5 FUNDACION SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS http://www.facebook.com/pages/Panama-Panama/FUNDACION-SAN-FRANCISCO-DE-ASIS/39042932048 http://www.fundasis.org/

Soluciones Home Page is part of the Panama Webring http://www.webring.com/hub?ring=panama;id=15;prvw which also serves as a "collection of sites with information about Panama, everything from tourism, history, FAQs, photos, about our beautiful country in Central America."
Webring was bought back by its founders from the jaws of Yahoo! Geocities sites such as Soluciones are not so lucky, with Yahoo! deciding to turn off the sites on October 26, 2009.
More about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocities

Video: The Canal expansion begins

Text and video by RPC Panama in Spanish at http://www.rpctv.com/noticias/index.php?sec=noti&id=4086

http://fs.nspmotion.com/tv_core.swf?asset_id=893z8s7zqz1

PANAMA CANAL AUTHORITY: Rapid pace of development

By Richard Lapper Tuesday Jul 24 2007 07:10

With its mown lawns, neat red tiled houses and pristine avenues, the suburbs surrounding the Panama Canal look like a piece of Middle America from the 1940s or 1950s. But the calm image hides a transformation. Many – if not most – of the Americans who lived in the "Zone" have gone back to the US.

The government's Panama Canal Authority now runs the canal and the military-run commissaries (grocery stores), schools and hospitals of the Panama Canal Company have long since been disbanded or transferred to local hands. The canal is slowly becoming integrated with the economy, its growth providing ever larger quantities of public revenues, with income from transit tolls and dividends up by more than five times since 1999, rising to $569.7m last year.

A group of privatised ports and dozens of other maritime industries have begun to grow up around the canal. The pace of that development will accelerate next year as expansion plans get under way, with a new road linking Panama City to Colón, three new ports planned and at least one refinery also set to spring up nearby.

Carmen Gisela Vergara, deputy minister for trade and industry, estimates that there are 140 separate maritime businesses, ranging from shipyards to companies offering provisions. "Business is doing things that wouldn't have been possible before 2000," she says.

Underpinning the process though is the success of the Panama Canal Authority itself. Since it took full control at the beginning of 2000, the authority has defied right-wing critics and predictions of disaster, becoming a model of well-run public sector enterprise in a country and a region where bad examples are more frequent.

"They are doing a better job of it than the Americans did," says one US businessman and former navy officer who used to live in the zone. Under the Americans the company was completely self-sufficient, more or less entirely devoid of any entrepreneurial direction and insulated from new ideas. As late as 1995 the company was still using old fashioned punch card computers and, under US management, staff members were never given lap tops. "The whole thing was isolated from reality," he adds.

As part of the transition, the canal company's cargo ships, railway and what the businessman describes as "beautifully maintained antique equipment" were sold off. Kansas City SouthernMiraflores Lock – a potential magnet for tourists – is operating way under its potential. "Imagine this if it were in the States," says one long-time Panamanian-American resident. But a no-nonsense commercial approach typifies the authority's attitude to its core business of moving traffic through the canal quickly and efficiently. Productivity has risen sharply. Railroad – a private company – took over the railway, installing new track designed to move freight rather than passengers. The authority's reach is still wide, too wide in the view of critics who might argue, for example, that its shipyard should be sold off or that the restaurant and visitor centre at

Although traffic and revenues have risen, the number of staff – 9,278 –, is 7 per cent lower than it was 10 years ago. And as traffic grows, the canal has worked harder to manage the flows.

"We are focused on the customer. We try to operate a government business with the practices of the private sector," says Jorge Quijano, the executive in charge of the canal's expansion plan. "The company in the 1970s was self-contained. We could do anything. We didn't need to get anything from outside. Under the Americans and during the transition period [the canal was jointly run during the 1980s and 1990s] there was a break-even approach. Now it is a business that is for Panama," says Mr Quijano.

The growth in container traffic has offered new opportunities for port operators and, at both ends of the canal, facilities have been expanded. Both state-owned ports at Balboa on the Pacific and Cristobal on the Caribbean were sold in the mid-1990s to the Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Port Holdings.

If everything goes to plan, by 2009-2010, according to Ms Vergara, Panamanian ports will be able to handle 8m containers a year, more than double current capacity and 20 times the level of 1995.

Meanwhile, easy logistics, a strong telecoms network, as well as the government's generous tax regime, are widening the range of businesses setting up in the zone.

For example, a company from Singapore recently set up near the zone to repair and rebuild aircraft and is employing 1,000 Panamanian engineers. "We have never had this before. We are developing entirely new sectors," says Ms Vergara.

Full text and subscription at http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto072420070720126051

Glitter and graft

Panama
Glitter and graft

Jul 19th 2007 | PANAMA CITY
From The Economist print edition

A country revamped as a service hub grows at Chinese rates

COMMUTER traffic crawls along Avenida Balboa, the coastal road that is the spine of Panama City, slowed by thousands of new cars. In the city's wealthier districts restaurants are packed, and it is hard to find a street without a skyscraper under construction. While some of its neighbours in Central America struggle with commodity-based economies, Panama is busy reinventing itself as a regional logistics and services hub.

That was a position it enjoyed in the 1970s, when an offshore financial industry briefly flourished. Then came the dark years of Manuel Noriega, a thuggish strongman toppled by an American invasion in 1989. Several undistinguished governments followed.

Several things have now come together to produce an extraordinary boom in Panama. The economy will expand by 11% this year and by over 9% in both 2008 and 2009, according to a forecast by LatinSource, a consultancy. That is faster than anywhere else in Latin America.

The first was the transfer of sovereignty over the Panama Canal in 1999. Since then, the canal has been run as a Panamanian business, rather than a branch of the United States' federal bureaucracy. President Martín Torrijos, who took office in 2004 (and whose father, a military ruler, negotiated the canal handover in the 1970s), pushed through a referendum last year which approved a $5.2 billion plan to expand the canal, doubling its capacity and enabling it to take much bigger ships. Work is due to start in August.

Other big projects are planned in the wake of the canal expansion. Occidental Petroleum, in partnership with Qatar Petroleum, plans an oil refinery, costing $7 billion, at Puerto Armuelles. A consortium led by Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong company, plans to turn Balboa into the largest port in Latin America. China's government-owned shipping operator, COSCO, is competing to build a second mega-port, this one on the Caribbean coast—even though Panama recognises Taiwan. Copa, a local airline, aspires to turn Panama into an alternative regional hub for travellers deterred by the security hassles of Miami airport.

The second factor is that Mr Torrijos's government has been rather more effective than its predecessors. He has cleaned up the public finances, pushing through an unpopular reform of social security. He actively courts foreign investors. He has negotiated a free-trade agreement with the United States, which Panama hopes will soon be ratified by the American Congress. But he also has close ties to other regional leaders, including Cuba's Raúl Castro.

This week Spain's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was the latest foreign leader to drop by, with a coterie of businessmen in tow. New foreign direct investment more than doubled in 2006 compared with the previous year, accounting for 16% of GDP—a share that is twice as big as in any other country in the region, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The government has finally got around to developing the prime land once occupied by American military bases in the former Canal Zone. The UN is moving its regional headquarters into one; another will become a technology park. Last week the government signed a contract with London & Regional, a British property company, which plans to build housing and industrial units at the former Howard Air Force base. Some of the new housing is aimed at American retirees, who are flocking to Panama. Donald Trump, an American property developer, is planning a 68-storey hotel and resort.

But as the developers pile in, not everyone is cheering. Some worry that the property bubble will soon burst. Others note that a weak education system does not produce enough engineers or skilled workers. Contractors are likely to import skilled labour from abroad. But with 40% of Panamanians still living in poverty, and unemployment at 8.6% last year (though falling), that will not be popular.

A handful of families continue to control much of the country's wealth and benefit from cosy ties to government while most Panamanians struggle to make ends meet. Mr Torrijos proposes to increase the minimum wage of $300 a month. American diplomats worry that if the benefits of growth don't filter down, the resulting sense of injustice could fuel political radicalisation.

A bigger, related, worry is corruption. Foreign firms are beginning to complain that they are hampered by the informal links between government and local business oligarchs. Sam Taliaferro, an American who runs a property business catering to foreign retirees in Boquete, a hill resort, says that corruption threatens to choke off foreign investment. With three-dozen other investors, he has formed a group to campaign against what he sees as the gouging of foreign firms.

Though Mr Torrijos's government has a cleaner record than its predecessors, it has not been scandal-free. An uncle of the president controversially acquired vacant land, and went on to destroy protected mangrove swamp without the necessary permit. It is hard to judge how deep corruption goes, or how much of an impact it may have on foreign investment. But if Panama's boom is to propel it swiftly to developed-country status over the next decade or so, it would help if it rested on a stronger institutional foundation.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9519426

Latin America's real estate Panamania

Once a sleepy Latin American capital, Panama City has become one of the world's hottest real estate markets. How long can the fever last?

By Eliza Barclay, Fortune Magazine

July 3 2007: 3:44 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- Off in the distance, where Panama Bay becomes the Pacific, container ships loaded with merchandise bound for the U.S. bob in the haze. Closer in, a flock of construction cranes hovers over densely clustered high-rises. Fourteen stories below, on Balboa Avenue, cars inch along, their windows sealed tight against the sweltering heat.

The view belongs to Jim and Imogene Buckley, a retired couple from Greensboro, Ga., who purchased their one-bedroom condo a few years ago, before it was built, for $140,000. The apartment, which they'll use every other winter month, alternating with another couple from Wyoming, gives them a ringside seat overlooking one of the world's hottest real estate markets.

Panama looked like a good investment and a place to have a good time," says Jim Buckley, 76, a former U.S. Air Guard pilot, while admiring the view. "You don't need a lot of sense to see that it will increase in property value."

Panamania - See the boom

Panama City is in the midst of an unprecedented real estate boom that is transforming the skyline of this once-sleepy Latin American capital. More than 30,000 units worth about $5.7 billion have come on the market since last July, according to Paul McBride, CEO of Prima Panama, a real estate marketing company.

That's a lot of condos in a country where the total economy measured $16.2 billion last year. And the boom shows no sign of abating: Among the showiest of the new projects is the Ice Tower, a 106-story luxury apartment building and Hilton Hotel complex that will be the tallest building in Latin America when it is completed in 2011. Even Donald Trump has a project on the boards.

Part of what's driving growth in Panama City, where the median apartment price recently surpassed the median home price in the U.S., is a wave of retirees from North America, like the Buckleys, looking for a place in the sun. So far, few Americans have moved permanently, but many are buying second homes or just plain speculating. Europeans are here too, and there's plenty of new wealth in Latin America, in places like Venezuela and Colombia, looking for a safe haven.

Construction workers on the Punta Pacifica construction site.

Call it Panamania. Is it a bubble in the making, or the rise of a new Miami? Despite the abundance of cranes around Panama City, only about 10 percent of the projects being sold are under construction, says McBride. "We're not even seeing the construction boom in Panama yet," he says. "This place will look like Manhattan if all these projects come to fruition."

Certainly the decision to spend $5.2 billion to double the width of the Panama Canal, the country's biggest source of revenue, is a sign of Panama's prosperity. The addition of a new lane and a new set of locks will allow post-Panamax container ships, the world's largest, to pass through the canal. "The expansion of the canal has woken up the curiosity of a lot of people," says Saul Faskha, the local developer of the Ice Tower and one of Panama's biggest boosters.

7 Up-and-coming destinations

Panama's economy has been growing at breakneck speed - 8.1 percent last year, compared with 6.4 percent in 2005 - and the government finished the year with a surplus of $576 million. Exports from Panama's free-trade zone, the second largest in the world after Hong Kong's, have helped fuel the growth. The U.S. Congress is expected to sign a free-trade agreement with Panama sometime this year, which should boost exports even further. And several multinational corporations have moved or are moving their Latin American headquarters to Panama City, including Caterpillar, Sanofi-Aventis and Samsung.

Consumer spending has also swelled, the banking sector is strong, and 40,000 new jobs were created last year. All that is good news for the government of Martín Torrijos, son of former strongman Omar Torrijos, who ruled Panama from 1968 to 1981.

Unlike his father, the younger Torrijos came to power in a fair election in 2004. And unlike his father, Torrijos doesn't have to deal with a U.S.-occupied Canal Zone: Panama took control of the canal in 1999 and has proved adept at running it. Gone, too, are the U.S. troops that toppled another dictator, Manuel Noriega, a corrupt former general who is nearing the end of a 17-year U.S. prison term for cocaine trafficking.

Rumors that Noriega might want to return to Panama have cast a cloud over an otherwise bright mood. But the country, 36 percent of whose population lives in poverty, has other problems to deal with. For one thing, says Torrijos, during a recent trip to a small mountain town, "there is a huge demand now for a skilled workforce."

Indeed, a labor shortage has already helped slow construction activity in Panama City, and developers are concerned that other factors may hinder the completion of projects. Materials and equipment are in high demand, from rebar to cement to earthmovers. The construction frenzy has also put a strain on the city's infrastructure, and the government is struggling to build enough roads, water-treatment facilities and other projects.

One big problem: All of Panama City's sewage is dumped into the bay, and a treatment plant won't be completed until 2009. "Panama has grown very, very fast - we didn't anticipate this," says Ubaldino Real, Minister of the Presidency. "The government has had to take out more money to be able to act much faster to build roads."

But that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of people like José Manuel Bern, director of sales and projects for Empresas Bern, one of Panama City's oldest and largest developers. The company's Bayfront Tower, completed in April, is among the first buildings designed for foreigners - distinct from those built for locals because they have balconies but no maid's rooms. Bern says that he sold nearly all the apartments in the tower four years ago, and that units that originally went for $130,000 now sell for $330,000. "We used to be very focused on the local market," he says, "but now I sell to a foreigner every other day."

Prima Panama's McBride and others are worried that the building boom is ultimately going to exceed demand. "I do not think there will be sufficient buyers to absorb capacity, if in fact capacity is delivered," McBride says. "When you see prices going up, driven by speculative investors, that points to a bubble."

Try telling that to Adolfo Olloqui, a Spanish developer whose company, Grupo Olloqui, is building what will be one of the tallest luxury towers in downtown Panama City, the 77-story Palacio de la Bahia. "Panama is the Miami of the future," he says. "With the visa problems in the U.S., South Americans, Central Americans and North Americans will want to come here to do business and to live."

Or try telling it to the Buckleys, who at least have a splendid view from their new Panama perch.

Pictures and more in http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/09/100122336/index.htm

High U.S. Government Officials to attend ExpoTrans in Panama

A delegation of high officials of the U.s. Government, lead by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters, will travel to Panama on May 7-9 to attend ExpoTrans 2007, a transportation conference organized by the U.S-Panama Business Council

The conference will take place at the Miramar Intercontinental Hotel and will address topics related to maritime, aviation, land transportation and logistics. During the luncheon of May 7 the Council will present its “Friendship Awards” to Panama Canal Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta and on Tuesday evening, during its traditional “Friendship Awards Dinner”, will recognize the prestigious companies Copa Airlines and Panama Ports Company.

For additional information contact Enrique Sosa, Executive Director of USPA, at 269-2178, uspa @ cableonda.net