HOUSTON, May 3, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion project, once completed, "will impact the way transit will move in the future," declared Roberto Aleman Zubieta Thursday at the 25th International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Conference being held in Houston. Aleman Zubieta, the CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, provided the world's port leaders with an update on the status of the project. Aleman Zubieta said the first of several major construction contracts to be awarded will be advertised on the authority's Web site next week.
"It is more than just an infrastructure project," said Aleman Zubieta of the expansion that will be completed in 2014, 100 years after the Panama Canal was opened. The expansion will consist of dredging, widening and deepening of existing waterways as well as the designing and building of a third set of canal locks.
The current lock dimensions are 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long. The expanded lock dimensions will be 189 feet wide and 1,400 feet long. The current locks allow for a maximum 4,500-TEU vessel. The new locks will allow up to a 12,000-TEU vessel.
By the year 2025, container traffic through the canal will nearly triple according to Robert West of Global Insight, Inc., who also spoke at the conference. The expansion project is timely as container imports to the United States are expecting to double by the year 2020.
Aleman Zubieta and West were part of a work session on the impact of the canal's expansion.
In the same work session, short sea shipping received a boost from the former U.S. Maritime Administrator, Captain William Schubert, who outlined for conference delegates the benefits for the U.S. of this waterborne segment of transportation. Increase in trade and inadequate transportation capacity to move freight are factors that are driving this modal shift, Schubert pointed out. Rising fuel costs, traffic congestion and air quality issues are considerations that are making short sea shipping attractive means of moving goods along the U.S. coast. Schubert went on to say that short sea shipping has been adopted as official transportation policy of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
IAPH delegates also heard presentations on how two ports are utilizing innovative technologies to deal with expansions. Fresh from Wednesday's technical tour of the Port of Houston Authority's state-of-the-art Bayport Container and Cruise Terminal, conference attendees listened intently as port officials from Hamburg and Singapore detailed their efforts to deal with expanding their facilities. The growth in international trade is resulting in the world's ports exploring new technology with higher productivity.
At the Bayport Container Terminal, delegates saw how the Port of Houston Authority is preparing for expected growth in containerization.
The conference continues through Friday, May 4.
The International Association of Ports and Harbors was founded in 1955. For more than 50 years, IAPH has steadily developed as the leading organization in the global maritime industry. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the IAPH comprises representatives from more than 400 ports and top executives from major industry corporations in nearly 90 countries around the world. The members' ports as a whole handle 85 percent of the world's container traffic and more than 60 percent of the global seaborne trade. More information about IAPH is available on www.IAPHworldports.org. For more information regarding the conference, visit www.IAPH2007.com.
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