Expanded Guaymas Port Hailed as 'American Port with Mexican Prices'

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--"We are practically an American port with Mexican prices," said Port Director Jose Luis Castro, as he announced that the first phase of the Guaymas port expansion will be tendered in March.

"The master development plan has been approved, the executive project is almost complete, the environmental permits are under way, and we expect to tender the first-phase dredging in March," he said.

Guaymas is on the coast of Mexico's northern state of Sonora on the Gulf of California, and it will be developed in two phases. The first phase will see the dredging and construction of 10 terminals with an overall investment of $565 million. When completed, the port will have an annual capacity of 30 million tons. Currently, it can handle only 7 million tons.

About $173 million will be invested in dredging and basic infrastructure for the common areas. The balance of $392 million will be invested in docks and equipment by the private companies that secure concessions, Castro said.

Global dredging majors such as Royal Boskalis Westminster (OTC:KKWFF) (Papendrecht, Netherlands), Dragamex (Coatzacoalcos, Mexico), Van Oord (Rotterdam , Netherlands), Jan De Nul (Aalst, Belgium/Luxembourg) and Dredging International (Zwijdrecht, Belgium) have all expressed interest in the tender, the director said.

The tender award and the start of construction are expected in the first half of this year. The first phase of dredging will be completed in 15 months. The second phase of expansion will cover the construction of a new container terminal and a multi-use terminal, with an initial 600 meters of berths, BNamericas reported.

The need for the port expansion is driven by growing demand for containerized cargo handling, in addition to the port's traditional markets of agricultural and mineral bulk. Strong demand to import and export to the central and eastern U.S., particularly Arizona, is a key driver of expected growth, Castro said.

He added that when complete, the expanded port will provide a "viable alternative or substitute" for the failed Punta Colonet port project, which was proposed by the previous administration as a U.S.-Mexico cross border port.

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