By Alaric Nightingale (Bloomberg) -- Shipments of liquefied natural gas through the Panama Canal may climb once expansion work on the waterway is completed in 2014, TradeWinds reported, citing Silvia de Marucci, an official in the canal’s market research and analysis department. Once work is completed, 80 percent of liquefied natural gas carriers will be able to fit through the canal’s locks, up from 6 percent now, TradeWinds said. In practice, no such vessels presently use the link, de Marucci told the newspaper. Repsol YPF is interested in using the canal to ship LNG from Peru and Kitimat LNG Inc. is also considering using the waterway to sell Canadian cargoes to customers in the Atlantic, TradeWinds reported. The 80-kilometer (50-mile) canal, which connects the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, is undergoing a $5.25 billion expansion.   

A delivery date has been established for the third set of locks being built as part of the massive program to expand the Panama Canal. The consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) has until midnight on 21 October 2014 to deliver this part of the project, valued at $3.118 billion dollars. The Panama Canal Authority published the final date in their thirteenth quarterly report on the progress of the contracts that have been let as part of the expansion program. To avoid cost overruns on the project the Panama Canal Authority has designated a $160 million dollar fund to cover potential price fluctuations for steel, cement, and fuel. So far 97% of the various contracts awarded by the Panama Canal Authority for the completion of the project have already been completed and delivered. Over the past three years the project to expand the Panama Canal has created 3,199 jobs for Panamanians. It is expected that between now and 2010 the project will have generated a total of 11,228 jobs. The phenomenon of "El Niño" - which will extend the summer dry season in Panama - will actually benefit the Panama Canal expansion project by delaying the torrential downpours typical of the Panamanian rainy season, which cause work delays. The GUPC group says they will start working to build the third set of locks 24 hours a day in March 2010. (Source: La Estrella)   

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) issued today, Friday, the order to proceed for the fourth and final dry excavation contract for the Pacific Access Channel (PAC-4). This contract is part of the program to expand the Panama Canal, with the total project valued at $5.25 billion dollars. The winning consortium submitted all required performance bonds for payment and insurance during the first ten days after the contract was awarded on 7 January 2010. Now, with this order to proceed, the consortium ICA-FCC-MECO has 1,288 calendar days to finish this important phase of the expansion project, which should conclude on or before 2 August 2013, according to a press release from the ACP. This channel, located on the West bank of the Canal between the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, will complete the construction of a 6.1 kilometer long channel that will link the new third set of locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal to the Culebra Cut. This project also includes the excavation, removal and disposal of approximately 26 million cubic meters of material. The ACP awarded this contract to the consortium ICA-FCC-MECO, after the contractor submitted the lowest bid, complying with the requirements in the bid sheet. (Source: La Prensa)   

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The Panama Canal Authority said on Thursday it awarded a $268 million excavation contract to a consortium including Mexico's ICA (ICA.MX), Spain's FCC (FCC.MC) and Costa Rica's Meco. The companies will help dig a channel connecting Panama's new Pacific locks with the narrowest part of the canal, the authority said in a statement. To make way for larger ships, Panama is spending $5.25 billion in the first major expansion of the canal since it was opened in 1914. A consortium led by Spain's Sacyr Vallehermoso (SVO.MC) and Italy's Impregilo (IPGI.MI) were the low bidders for the main contract in the expansion program in July. The expansion of the canal, which currently handles 5 percent of global trade, is due to be completed in 2014. (Reporting by Sean Mattson, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)   

By C.J. Schexnayder - A construction consortium from Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica has outbid three other competitors for the second-largest contract awarded in the Panama Canal’s $5.2-billion Third Lane Expansion effort, eclipsed only by the price tag for design and construction of the waterway’s new locks. Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (FCC), along with Mexico’s Empresas ICA and Constructora MECO of Costa Rica, submitted a bid of $268 million for the fourth and final contract to construct a 6.7-kilometer-long access channel on the canal’s Pacific side. The three other bids for the contract were submitted by a team led by Panama City-based ISC Panamá bid, which bid $295 million; a consortium of Belgian dredging firm Jan de Nul and China’s CHEC, which bid $359 million and one from Brazilian contractor Odebrecht at $380 million. “We are very pleased to see that the competition among top construction companies has resulted in bids that are within the budget,” says Jorge L. Quijano, executive vice president of engineering and program management for the Panal Canal Authority, the quasi-governmental body that oversees the waterway. Officials will award the contract in early 2010 after analyzing technical and financial submissions. When completed in 2014, the Third Lane Expansion is expected to double the canal’s cargo capacity. The project not only will increase the number of vessels that can traverse its 80-kilometer-long length, but also permit passage of massive post-Panamax ships that the current locks are too small to accommodate. The Pacific Access channel is required to connect the Panama Canal’s existing navigation channel and new locks to be constructed on the waterway’s Pacific side.   

Telemetro Reporta - The Meco Consortium, formed by companies from Costa Rica, Spain and Mexico, won the fourth dry excavation contract for the Panama Canal, one of the largest parts of the program to expand the canal that will allow larger ships to use the waterway, according to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). MECO bid $267.8 million dollars, or $27 million less than their closest competitor said the ACP. "Work should begin early next year and we calculate it should end in 2013," said the head of the ACP, German Alberto Zubieta, at the event were the envelopes containing the proposals were opened. The MECO Consortium consists of the companies Meco (Costa Rica), Ica (Mexico) and FCC (Spain), the ACP said. The contract for the fourth dry excavation "represents the most complex construction project after the new set of locks," said the Executive Vice President of Engineering and Program Management of the ACP, Jorge Luis Quijano. Among the other companies and groups bidding for the contract - the Brazilian company Odebrecht asked for $379.8 million dollars, the consortium ISC Panama proposed $294.9 million dollars, and the Jan de Nul-Chec group asked for $359.1 million dollars. The proposals were opened on Tuesday by the ACP, which in the next few days should award this contract in order to complete the expansion of the Canal in 2014, in time for the centennial of the opening of the waterway. The winning group will have to remove 27 million cubic meters of earth and rock to open a channel of just over six kilometers near the Pacific entrance of the canal. The expansion project, which will have a total cost of about $5.25 billion dollars, would allow for the passage of much larger ships through the Panama Canal, which already sees about 5% of all world trade. Meco is an established Costa Rican company specializing in earth moving, road building, and the construction of tourism infrastructure, which has worked throughout Central America since 1992.   

La Estrella - The Panama Canal Authority will announce tomorrow the winning bidder of the largest dry excavation work in the expansion of the waterway. The contract requires the digging of a new channel that will connect the new locks with the Culebra Cut, the narrowest stretch of the waterway, near the entrance to the Canal to the Pacific Ocean. This is the fourth contract that will be awarded for excavation as part of the project to expand the Panama Canal, and it is the second largest contract in terms of price or value, second only to the contract to build the new set of locks. The work includes the excavation, removal and disposal of about 27 million cubic meters of material, to open a dry riverbed 6.1 kilometers in length, in a contract estimated to be worth around $400 million dollars. ACP sources explained that because it was a bidding process and since there was no requirement for prequalification, it will not be known what companies are competing for the contract until the opening of the envelopes which will take place tomorrow at 18.00 GMT at the headquarters of the Panamanian government institution that manages the waterway. Some media outlets have claimed the Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso, along with the Italian company Impregilo and the Panamanian company CUSA aim to secure this contract, after winning last July. According to this information, also competing for this contract are the Spanish company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), together with the Mexican company ICA and the Costa Rican company MECO, a group which won the third dry excavation contract for $36.6 million dollars, the lowest bid. Sacyr, with Impregilo, CUSA and Holland's Jan de Nul was awarded in mid-July the primary job of the Panama Canal expansion project, the construction of a new lane of locks, a huge project costing $3.118 billion dollars. The canal was designed in 1904 for vessels measuring at most 267 meters long and 28 meters wide, and the Panama Canal is now too small to handle those vessels known as "post-Panamax" which far exceed the capabilities of the current canal, so the expansion of the canal was needed together with a new set of much larger locks. With this expansion project, which began in 2006, the ACP aims to double the traffic capacity of the canal, from 300 to 600 million tons annually.   

By Chris Baltimore LA PORTE, Texas (Reuters) - Warehouses holding everything from beer kegs to frozen chickens crowd the roadside along Highway 146 south of Houston, and a ferocious building boom is adding acres more, thanks to an even bigger project 1,800 miles away in Panama. A $5.25 billion plan to triple the Panama Canal's capacity finishes in 2014, opening the way to Houston for mega-sized cargo vessels that can't squeeze through the canal's current locks and don't want to steam around South America. The prospect of bigger ships, and more of them, could be a boon for the Port of Houston, which already handles more foreign tonnage than any other U.S. port. With an eye toward feeding the U.S. consumer's insatiable demand for Asian-made goods, U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Home Depot have built millions of square feet (hundreds of thousands of square meters) of warehouse space around Houston ports. "They're popping up every place," said Jimmy Jamison, director of operations at the Port of Houston Authority, referring to the warehouses. "If they wait until the Panama Canal expansion, that property won't be there." (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (670 words)

By Joseph Bonney for the Journal of Commerce - When people gather to talk about the Port of New York and New Jersey, conversation almost inevitably turns to the port authority-owned Bayonne Bridge. The span's 151-foot vertical clearance is too low to allow the new generation of container ships to take full advantage of what will be 50-foot-deep channels to Port Newark/Elizabeth by 2012 and to New York Container Terminal on Staten Island by 2014. Port Director Rick Larrabee, told an industry audience Thursday night that the agency is determined to solve the bridge problem, but that such a huge fiscal and policy decision deserves careful examination. The port authority has commissioned a $10 million study of alternatives. These range from spending $2 billion to $3 billion or more on a new bridge or tunnel to an intriguing idea to redesign the existing bridge into a "lift" span that would raise the roadway to provide ships with more headroom. The feasibility of the "lift" alternative remains undetermined, but Larrabee said that because it might be done within three years at one-tenth the cost of a bridge replacement. Larrabee said the idea will receive close examination in the current study. "During the next 12 months, we'll run that one to ground," he said. With the Panama Canal's widening only five or six years away, the industry is getting antsy. There's even some talk about trying to persuade the port authority to demolish the bridge and divert Bayonne-Staten Island traffic to other bridges. An economic argument could be made for demolition -- traffic on the existing span totals only 22,000 vehicles a day. But don't look for it to happen. Demolishing a perfectly sound bridge, even to clear a critical navigation impediment, would tough to sell politically.   

By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY for the Wall Street Journal - The deal, announced Friday, is essentially a 50-year lease between the Maryland Port Administration and Ports America Group, a company owned by Highstar Capital, a New York private-equity fund. In exchange for the right to operate Baltimore's cargo-container terminal for 50 years, Ports America will make an upfront payment of $100 million and a series of infrastructure improvements at the port. Chief among them: deepening the water at the cargo terminal to 50 feet from its current depth of 45 feet. The improvements will enable Baltimore to compete for the supersize cargo vessels that are expected to start passing through the Panama Canal after its expansion is complete in 2014 or so. The vessels are capable of carrying twice as many 40-foot containers as the cargo vessels that typically call on East and Gulf Coast ports. Other ports are considering similar expansions and hunting for the capital to get them done. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is examining a number of proposals to fix its biggest impediment to serving bigger cargo ships: a bridge that isn't high enough for the vessels to fit under. Port officials in Charleston, S.C., are studying plans to increase the depth of its water, which fluctuates by six feet along with tides. The port is also moving to develop its Navy Base Terminal, which would boost container capacity by 50% when finished.   Click Here To Read The Full Article (336 words)

La Estrella - The construction of the third set of locks for the expansion of the Panama Canal will begin in January 2010, said yesterday executive director of the consortium that won the bidding for the project, Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), Antonio Zaffaroni. "We are at the beginning and there are many bureaucratic procedures, presentations that have to be done, and permits to obtain. The real work starts in January. For now it's all preparation, removal of animals, cutting trees..." said the official from the GUPC consortium, led by Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso. Zaffaroni said the first phase of the work will be the excavation, after having established "the facilities to produce concrete, crushed stone, cement and equipment to unload the arriving supplies." GUPC won the contract to build the third set of locks in mid-July for $3.1 billion dollars. Regarding the concerns raised over the difficulty of getting the job done at that price, Zaffaroni said "at present" there is "nothing alarming." "The budget is lower due to better technical skills, because having studied the project well it will cost less because we have optimized transportation cycles and construction methods," he said. The international consortium, which also includes the Italian company Impregilo, Belgium's Jan de Nul and the Panamanian Constructora Urbana (CUSA) has 1,883 days (about five years and 2 months) to complete the work, and time began to count on 25 August 2009. According to this calculation, if the consortium uses all of the time allowed by the Panama Canal Authority, the work would not be ready for August 15, 2014, when the government wants to inaugurate the new set of locks in time for the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the original canal.   

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- L.B. Foster Company of Pittsburgh, PA has been awarded a $20.5 million contract to supply Gerdau Ameristeel sheet piling to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) for use in the construction of the Panama Canal Expansion. The successful bidder for the PAC-4 contract opening later this year will install the piling for the excavation of the Pacific Access Channel and the construction of the Borinquen Dam. Gerdau Ameristeel's PS 31 flat steel sheets will be delivered in lengths of 56 ft. to 69 ft. Also, their PZC(TM) 26 Z-type sheet piling will be delivered in 49 ft. lengths. "ACP is acting independently of the contractor in this purchase to minimize costs and pre-stage the material for a 1Q 2010 start of the PAC-4 construction contract," said Jim Wiehage, Houston/International Sales Manager for the Construction Products Group within L.B. Foster Company. "As with other Gerdau deliveries to international locations, the sophisticated logistics required for the shipment of $20 million of piling from mid-state Virginia and Texas to the middle of Panama are considerable," noted David Maedgen, Gerdau Ameristeel Piling Sales Manager. Gerdau Ameristeel and L.B. Foster teamed to assure the client that the piling will move expeditiously by rail and truck to US ports, by ship to an Atlantic terminal near Colon, Panama and then by trucks to the jobsite. The first delivery is scheduled for October 2009 with 3 additional shipments of equal size completing transit by the end of January 2010. "L.B. Foster is proud to join with Gerdau Ameristeel to supply construction materials for such a monumental effort and to participate together in this historic project," said Don Foster, Senior Vice President of L.B. Foster's Construction Products Group. The Pacific Access Channel and the Borinquen Dam will be integral parts of the Panama Canal Expansion and provide navigation access to the Gaillard Cut via the new Pacific Post-Panama Locks. The completed canal project will allow ultra-large intermodal ships traveling from Asia to continue by sea to the US East Coast, rather than unloading containers on the West Coast and continuing freight by rail or truck across the United States.   

By Peter T. Leach for the Journal of Commerce Online - Key expansion project to help create expanded Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Authority said Thursday it has received bids from a number of global engineering and construction firms for the contract to dredge the Atlantic entrance to the canal. The Atlantic entrance dredging project is part of the Canal’s $5.25 billion expansion program to ensure larger, wider ships can reach the new locks. This includes lowering the canal bottom to 15.5 meters below mean low water, dredging approximately 14.8 million cubic meters and conducting the dry excavation of 800 thousand cubic meters. The area to be dredged on the Atlantic entrance extends approximately 13.8 kilometers, and the scope of work also includes widening the existing Atlantic entrance channel from 198 meters to a minimum of 225 meters and the north approach channel to a minimum of 218 meters. The canal authority released its request for proposals for the Atlantic entrance dredging on Feb. 27. Subsequently, several bidders attended site visits and a pre-tender meeting held from April through July, which were hosted by the canal authority and provided pertinent details on the project. The canal authority said it will now conduct a careful review of the bids before awarding the contract in the coming weeks to the lowest bidder that complies with all the contract requirements. The Atlantic entrance dredging is one of several key expansion projects that will help create an expanded Panama Canal. Other major projects are also pending. The largest and most important is the design and construction of the new set of locks. The canal authority also plans to dredge the Pacific sea entrance, and four dry excavation projects will ultimately form a new Pacific access channel to the new locks. So far, plans remain on time and on budget. The canal authority expects the expansion program to be complete by 2014.   

By WILFREDO S. JORDAN S. for La Prensa - The last step of the bidding process for the design and construction of the third set of locks was reached yesterday when the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) gave the order to proceed to the Grupo Unidos Por El Canal (GUPC). GUPC, led by the Spanish company Sacyr Vallehermoso, should begin work on August 25, 2009. After that date, the consortium has 1,883 days to deliver the new locks, in mid-2014. The consortium was awarded the contract to construct the third set of locks on July 15, for having the best technical expertise and the lowest price: $ 3.118 billion dollars. The ACP issued the order to proceed after completing the period specified in the project's schedule to start work, which included a review of the technical documentation and the qualifications of the various bids submitted. Based on this review, the consortium that came in second and offered a bid of $4.185 billion, Bechtel, Taisei, Mitsubishi Corporation, sent a note to the Minister for Canal Affairs Romulo Roux, warning about some technical shortcomings of the GUPC proposal. The CANAL consortium, which offered $5.981 billion, also sent a note to the ACP warning of an earthquake risk in the conceptual design of GUPC.   Click Here To Read The Full Article (288 words)

By Bob Luder for The Packer - Port Everglades, Broward County, Fla., signed a memorandum of understanding with the Panama Canal Authority Aug. 4 which it hopes will promote greater maritime trade and encourage new business between the organizations. Both organizations currently are undergoing expansion of their facilities, making this new agreement timely as well as practical. Port Everglades is working toward increasing capacity to handle larger ships that will pass through the Panama Canal after its expansion project is completed in 2014, according to a news release from Port Everglades. The canal expansion project will build a new lane of traffic along the canal through a new set of locks, doubling capacity and allowing the passage of longer, wider ships. The Port Everglades expansion is part of a comprehensive five-year capital improvement plan and 10- and 20-year vision plans estimated to cost $2 billion over the next 20 years, according to the release. Port Everglades director Phillip Allen said in the release that ports up and down the East Coast, especially those in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia, will be faced with expanding ship berths and ensuring adequate harbor depth as larger ships become the norm after the canal expansion. “Today’s signing of a memorandum of understanding between Port Everglades and the Panama Canal Authority marks our strong commercial and economic bonds and further strengthens it with an alliance for information sharing and collaboration,” Allen said in the release. “It will provide the framework to work together in a series of activities promoting both the canal and the port.” Port Everglades’ trade through the Panama Canal with the Far East and west coast of South America reached 909,893 short tons in 2008, 15% of the port’s container cargo throughput. (See Comments)   Click Here To Read The Full Article (104 words)

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY - PANAMA CITY — Under leaden skies, mammoth yellow vehicles prowl an enormous gash in the earth. Excavators, bulldozers and loaders relentlessly carve the rippled black and brown ground, reshaping nature's handiwork. There's no sense of drama or romance or history. Nothing to suggest this sprawling site is anything special. But these workers are trying to improve upon one of the great engineering feats of history: the Panama Canal. On the other side of a nearby rise, the refrigerated cargo ship Cape Town Star, hauling fruit from Ecuador to Russia, is easing through the canal's almost century-old Miraflores Locks. Now, under a $5.25 billion project, the canal authority is adding a third lane to the ocean-spanning waterway that will double its capacity and allow access to the world's largest cargo-carrying vessels. "We are eliminating the restrictions the canal has imposed on the maritime industry. … The capability you have here, you have nowhere else in the world," says Alberto Aleman, the canal authority administrator. (more)   Click Here To Read The Full Article (1,464 words)

By Carlos Estrada Aguilar for La Critica - The group "United for the Canal" has to deliver a performance bond worth $450 million dollars to guarantee the work they will do after having won the public bid to build the third set of locks as part of the project to expand the Panama Canal. Once they deliver this bond then the contract will be signed and they will be given the order to proceed. The consortium submitted a bid for $3.118 billion dollars, and the work must be completed in 1,883 days or about 269 weeks. If they run over the alloted time the company will have to pay $300,000 dollars per day or a maximum of $54.6 million dollars in penalties. Thus far the project to expand the Panama Canal has created 2,500 direct jobs according to the Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority Alberto Alemán Zubieta in a report to the Deputies of the National Assembly who sit on the Canal Affairs Committee. Alemán Zubieta said 2011 will be the "peak period" of the project, and at that time they expect the project will generate more than 7,000 jobs. Alemán Zubieta said as work progresses on the areas of the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the waterway where excavation work is being conducted, more workers will be added to the widening project and there will be a significant impact on growth in the construction sector. The chairman of the Canal Affairs Committee, Luis Eduardo Quirós, recalled that when the expansion project was approved it was established that the Minister of Canal Affairs and the Administrator of the ACP should present a quarterly report detailing the progress of the work to ensure the transparency of the project. The Minister for Canal Affairs Romulo Roux was also present at the National Assembly. (See Comments)   Click Here To Read The Full Article (380 words)

By Adeline Teoh (dynamicexport.com.au) - Trade between Asia and North America will benefit from the expansion of the Panama Canal after canal authorities nominated a bid by a Spanish-Italian consortium as the frontrunner to be awarded the expansion contract. The Panama Canal Authority will assess the consortium’s US$3.12 billion bid, led by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso and Italy’s Impregilo, for technical issues before confirming the deal. The consortium beat two rival consortiums for the contract. Presenting significant savings and a sound technical front, the group was said to have the ‘best value’ bid, which will see canal capacity double to accommodate newer, wider ships. “This event marks a critical milestone for the Panama Canal Authority and Panama,” said Alberto Aleman Zubieta, CEO of the Panama Canal Authority. “We look forward to awarding the contract in the coming days.” The canal sees about five percent of the world’s cargo, mostly trade between Asia and the east coast of the USA.   

By Steve Goldstein LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Spain's Sacyr Vallehermoso (ES:SYV 10.69, +1.01, +10.43%) rallied nearly 13% in Madrid after leading a winning consortium that included Impregilo (IT:IPG 2.38, -0.05, -1.96%) to build a new set of locks for the Panama Canal. The bid was $3.12 billion, which was lower than the bids from the competing groups. One rival consortium was led by Bechtel, and another included Actividades de Construccion y Servicios (ES:ACS 34.40, +0.19, +0.56%) , Acciona (ES:ANA 82.60, +0.35, +0.43%) , Fomento de Construcciones y Contratos (ES:FCC 27.10, +0.45, +1.69%) and Hochtief (DE:HOT 34.34, +0.72, +2.14%).    

MILAN, July 8 (Reuters) - Shares in Italian construction company Impregilo (IPGI.MI) rose over 3 percent after the Panama Canal Authority said the consortium led by Impregilo and Sacyr (SVO.MC) had submitted the lowest price bid for a contract to expand the canal. The authority said the consortium's bid was $3.12 billion while the authority's target price for the contract is $3.48 billion. (Reporting by Stephen Jewkes)    

By Danilo Masoni and Sean Mattson MILAN/PANAMA CITY, July 7 (Reuters) - A team led by U.S. group Bechtel is financially best placed to win the race for an estimated $3.3 billion contract to expand the Panama Canal, analysts said. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) overseeing the bidding will open price bids on Wednesday but may take several weeks before announcing a winner. This $3.3 billion contract is the largest chunk of a $5.25 billion project to expand the canal. Bids were placed months before a presidential election brought into power millionaire supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli, bucking a trend of left-wing leadership victories in Latin America. The new president took office last Wednesday. The other two bidders are a consortium including Spanish giants ACS (ACS.MC), FCC (FCC.MC) and Acciona (ANA.MC), and a smaller group led by Sacyr (SVO.MC) of Spain and Impregilo (IPGI.MI) of Italy. The closely watched decision was initially expected before Martinelli took office. There has been speculation that bids could exceed Panama's budget and that the project could incur cost overruns. (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (587 words)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - On Wednesday this week the Panama Canal Authority will announce the winning consortium for a contract to design and build the third set of locks for the expansion of the Panama Canal, the largest single contract of the project expected to be worth as much as $3.35 billion dollars. The new locks will be much larger than the existing locks and will allow for the passage of the world's largest vessels. In addition the design will incorporate elements to reuse the water in chambers, rather than simply flushing the millions of gallons of water necessary for each ship to pass as is currently done with the existing locks. There are several consortiums competing for this contract, specifically the CANAL group, Bechtel (Japanese and US), and the "Grupo Unidos por el Canal" (companies from Spain, Italy, Germany, and Panama.) Experts from the Panama Canal have been reviewing the bids and proposals since March, and each bid has been graded using a scoring system. The group obtaining the best overall score, based on both the technical merits as well as the bid price, will be awarded the contract. If you would like to watch the opening of the envelopes live via a webcast, just click on this link to see the show, which will start at 9:00 am on Wednesday morning, 8 July 2009.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.    

By Michael Dresser for the Baltimore Sun - The port of Baltimore has concentrated its search for a private partner to operate the state-owned Seagirt Marine Terminal on two competitors - a vital step in preparation for the expected widening of the Panama Canal in 2014. The Maryland Port Association said Tuesday that Ceres Terminals Inc./Alinda Capital Partners LLC and Ports America Group/Highstar Capital have passed the qualification process and will be permitted to submit bids to run the Southeast Baltimore terminal. The lead partners are both familiar names in the Baltimore port. Ports America has operated Seagirt Marine Terminal since it opened in 1990. Ceres has been a leading stevedore here for more than 30 years. James J. White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, said the state expects to make a final contract award late in the fourth quarter. The winning bidder would lease the terminal for a minimum of 30 years and would be required to put up the estimated $80 million it will take to build a new 50-foot berth to accommodate the larger ships expected to call on the port after the Panama Canal is widened. That project is expected to be completed in 2014. White said there were only the two responses to the state's bid invitation but that both qualified. He expressed delight with the quality of the bidders, calling them both experienced stevedores backed by strong infrastructure investment funds. "I think we're in great shape," he said. "We're very encouraged and excited to move this thing forward." The next step in the process is for the state to outline the specific terms and conditions it is proposing for the public-private partnership agreement. The bidders will have until Sept. 4 to submit initial offers, and negotiations toward a best and final offer would take place in the fall. White said construction of the new berth is expected to begin in 2012 and take about 18 months.   

By LES BLUMENTHAL; MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - WASHINGTON – Struggling to ride out the recession, West Coast ports face new competition as ports in Canada and Mexico, an expanded Panama Canal and even the Suez Canal could steal away some of the cross-Pacific shipping they’ve relied on. More than 70 percent of Asian goods imported into the U.S. – everything from toys to electronics to autos – pass through the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. The directors of the ports, in a first-ever joint visit, were on Capitol Hill last week seeking billions of dollars and a federal commitment to improve rail corridors necessary to speed the goods east. “We need a well-thought-out, strategic freight policy,” said Tim Farrell, executive director of the Port of Tacoma. “We need to focus on corridors from Shanghai to Chicago or Tokyo to Houston. We are just getting started, but the West Coast ports generate more jobs than the Big Three automakers.” (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (709 words)

By Peter T. Leach for the Journal of Commerce Online - The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and the Panama Canal Authority signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday that is aimed at increasing all-water container traffic from Asia to Philadelphia through the canal. Philadelphia does not now get many calls by container ships that use the all-water route from Asia because it does not yet have the channel depth. But the PRPA and the state are planning to build a large new container terminal called Southport at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard on the Delaware River that would be capable of handling the larger post-Panamax ships that will be able to transit the canal after it completes a third set of locks in 2014. The PRPA is also sponsoring a five- to seven-year project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the Delaware River’s main channel from 40 feet to 45 feet, which will better position the port to accommodate the next generation of vessels with deeper drafts that will be able to transit the canal after 2014. The MOU was signed June 12 by PRPA Board Chairman John H. Estey and Panama Canal Administrator/CEO Alberto Alemán Zubieta. Under the agreement, which is renewable after two years, PRPA and ACP will conduct joint activities and share best practices. Specific areas of focus will include marketing, research and data interchange, technical advancements and personnel training programs. The agreement demonstrates each organization’s dedication to meeting the anticipated increased levels of international trade. In 2008, PRPA cargo transiting the Canal, either on its way to or from its destination, totaled 1,906,343 long tons and represents half of all cargo handled by PRPA. Moreover, this number is up nearly 17,000 long tons from the year before.   

SANTA MARGHERITA, Italy (Reuters) - A consortium including Italy's Impregilo SpA has obtained top marks in the technical appraisal of bids to expand the Panama Canal, Impregilo's chairman said on Friday. Impregilo has said the whole Panama expansion project is worth $3.7 billion and it has a potential 37 percent stake in any contract. "The (tender) envelopes will be opened on June 29," Chairman Massimo Ponzellini said during a conference at a meeting of the Confindustria employers association. "We know we have obtained the maximum technical points. We hope to win the contest," he said, without elaborating. Brokers have cited order news, including the Panama project, as supporting a rise in Impregilo's shares. They closed on Friday up 4.17 percent at 2.56 euros. Impregilo's consortium partners are Spain's Sacyr Vallehermoso SA, Portugal's Somague, Belgium's Jan de Nul and Panama's Cusa. Two other consortiums are on the short list. The first is the CANAL grouping including Spain's ACS SA, Acciona SA and Germany's Hochtief AG. The second is a Japanese-U.S. group led by the privately-held Bechtel. (Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro; writing by Nigel Tutt; Editing by Hans Peters)   

PANAMA CITY, Panama, June 8, 2009 – The Panama Canal Expansion Program received its 11th international award to date at the 2009 International Logistics and Material Handling Exhibition (SIL 2009) in Barcelona, Spain June 4. Judges unanimously bestowed the “Best International Project” award to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) for its management of the Canal’s expansion, the “largest infrastructure initiative in Latin America.” Expansion will build a new lane of traffic along the Panama Canal through the construction of a new set of locks, which will double capacity and allow more traffic and longer, wider ships. During the awards ceremony, judges of SIL 2009 recognized the original construction of the Canal as “one of the engineering wonders of all time.” Judges also acknowledged the efforts of the more than 9,000 dedicated Panamanians employed by the ACP who help facilitate the transit of ships through the Canal every day. (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (266 words)

By James Kraus (Bloomberg) -- Panama is ready to award the main contract to enlarge the almost 100-year-old canal that traverses the isthmus as early as this month, the Los Angeles Times said, citing Alberto Aleman, chief executive of the Panama Canal Authority. Aleman discounted reports that construction on the $5.25 billion project might be delayed because of the global economic slowdown, the newspaper reported. Bechtel Group Inc., in alliance with Taisei Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp., has bid for the contract, the newspaper said. The two other groups that placed bids in March include one led by Spain's Grupo ACS, and another by Sacyr Vallehermoso SA and Italy's Impregilo SpA, the Times reported.   

By Chris Kraul Reporting from Panama City for the Los Angeles Times - The economic downturn has stalled big construction projects across the globe, but here in Panama, smoke-belching steam shovels and dredges work around the clock on what people here call simply la ampliación, or the expansion. This month, officials will award the principal contract for the $5.25-billion expansion of the landmark Panama Canal, a project that will probably alter global shipping patterns and cement this Central American nation's place as a center of global logistics. "This is a financial crisis, and there has been a decline in ship traffic. But we are very much on time and on target," said Panama Canal Authority head Alberto Aleman, addressing rumors that the global recession could cause the project to miss its 2014 scheduled completion date. (more)    Click Here To Read The Full Article (910 words)