Proposed Baja California port could handle 5 million TEUs a year

Proposed Baja California port could handle 5 million TEUs a year    The size, scope and timing of a planned Baja California competitor to the U.S. Southern California ports continue to shift, according to comments by the Mexican government Wednesday.
   Differing versions of the Punta Colonet port plan have ranged in cost from $1 billion to $9 billion, and varied in scale from smaller than the Port of San Diego to as large as the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles combined.
   Bidding is expected to start in December for the project. But the Mexican government's current vision of the port, according to Mexican Deputy Transport Minister Manuel Rodriguez, is about one-third the size of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. He told Reuters in an interview Wednesday that he expects the proposed port, located about 150 miles south of San Diego, to be in the 5 million-TEU-a-year range. This would make Punta Colonet about the size of the New York-New Jersey port complex, the third-busiest U.S. container port complex. Container volumes in 2006 for New York-New Jersey were slightly more than 5 million TEUs.
   Rodriguez also told Reuters that he expected the bids for the project to come in at a range of $5 billion to $6 billion. The naming of a winner in the bidding is not likely until the second half of 2008, he told the news service.
   A possible Mexican rival to the dominant Southern California ports, the development of Punta Colonet has raised concerns in the American shipping industry about a major shift of cargo south of the U.S./Mexican border. The Colonet port would deal almost exclusively in U.S.-destined container cargo from Asia that would head from the port via rail into the U.S. Southwest.
   The Colonet port has been on the drawing boards for several years. It has progressed slowly, however, experiencing numerous delays, including threats by mineral rights owners in Colonet harbor to hold up development. The Mexican government is taking action to cancel the claims of the mineral group, Grupo Minero Lobos.
   In April, Union Pacific pulled out a partnership with Hong Kong-based port operator Hutchison Holdings to bid on the project. The Omaha, Neb.-based railroad has said since that they may look at other partnerships. UP's main rail lines through the U.S. Southwest are the most likely connection point for any rail from Colonet.
   Mexican construction firm Ideal and U.S. marine terminal operator SSA Marine have both indicated they would compete in bidding for the Colonet project.
   Last month, the Mexican government announced plans to spend upwards of $44.5 billion to upgrade and expand the country's transportation infrastructure under President Felipe Calder'n’s $250 billion national development plan for 2007-2012. The development of infrastructure to support Punta Colonet featured heavily in several major components of Calder'n’s plan.