Baja port project bidding reportedly pushed back to 2010

Baja port project bidding reportedly pushed back to 2010 The Mexican government has told potential investors in the Punta Colonet port project that it has decided to delay bidding on the $5 billion project until 2010, according to a report by Mexican industry trade Web site, infotransportes.com.
   The decision, according to the Web site, was announced to possible French investors, such as shipping giant CMA CGM, at a welcome session of the World Economic Forum of Latin America being held through Wednesday in Canc'n, Mexico.
   Cioltzil Moreno Hernandez, director of the Technical and Evaluation Program for the Ministry of Communications and Transport, reportedly made the delay announcement. Known as SCT, the ministry serves a similar Mexican government function as the U.S. Department of Transportation.
   The delay also runs counter to recent SCT statements, some as recently as two weeks ago, that the bidding process on the project would begin by mid-2008.
   'We are working hard, but (the project) cannot be bid on in the following two years,' Hernandez reportedly told French investors after they insisted on details of the project terms.
   She explained the project delay is because SCT has not presented environmental impact and permitting documents to the federal environment and natural resources ministry, known as Semarnat. Hernandez reportedly said that while the SCT will submit the appropriate applications to Semarnat soon, processing the applications could take up to two years.
   Mexican government officials, including SCT Secretary Luis Tellez, have previously said they had hope to start construction on the Punta Colonet port by the end of 2008.
   SCT Secretary Luis Tellez could not be reached for corroboration.
   Differing versions of the Punta Colonet port, located about 150 miles south of San Diego, Calif., 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. Envisioned as a nearly all-intermodal operation, current plans call for containers to be transported via rail to U.S. mainline rails near the intersection of the California, Arizona and Mexican borders.
   The Mexican government's current vision is for Punta Colonet to be in the 5 million TEU-a-year size range when fully constructed in about 2020, about the size of the current New York-New Jersey port complex, the third-busiest U.S. container port complex.
   Bids for the Punta Colonet project will be sought for a single firm to develop the port/rail projects and to operate the facilities. The Calder'n administration is predicting the bids will be in the range of $5 billion to $6 billion.