Panama Canal receives 3 bids for lock construction

Panama Canal receives 3 bids for lock construction The Panama Canal Authority said Tuesday it has received proposals from three consortia competing to design and build new locks that will allow larger ships to transit the waterway and be part of a third traffic lane across the isthmus.
   The three consortia that submitted bids are: Consorcio C.A.N.A.L, Consortium Bechtel, Taisei-Mitsubishi Corp. and Consorcio Grupo Unidos por el Canal. The ACP said it would carefully evaluate the proposals in a transparent manner and award the contract for “best value” — 55 percent of the score for the technical aspect and 45 percent for the bid price. The canal authority plans to select a bidder in June.
   A fourth consortium that was pre-qualified to bid on the locks project, Consorcio Atl'ntico-Pac'fico de Panam', chose not to submit a proposal. Alberto Alem'n Zubieta, the canal administrator and chief executive officer said during a teleconference with reporters he did not want to speculate on why the consortium did not bid, but said he was pleased that there were three offers for what he said was the most important part of the expansion project.
   The locks are the most expensive part of the canal expansion, which is expected to cost $5.25 billion and be completed in 2014. The new locks will have sliding doors and will include special basins that reduce the amount of water needed to lock ships.
   The technical proposals will be evaluated by a committee, comprising 15 canal authority employees who will be assisted by more than 40 local and international experts.
   Earlier this week the canal released traffic statistics for the first fiscal quarter of its fiscal year ending Dec. 31, which showed tonnage, as measured by the Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System, fell 1 percent compared to the prior year. While total canal transits were up 0.1 percent, transits of larger ships, so-called “supers” were off 1.4 percent.
   Alem'n Zubieta said he expects revenue to remain stable in the current fiscal year despite a 5 percent decline in tonnage because of a toll hike due to go into effect May 1.
   The canal authority said in the first quarter transits of containerships, reefer ships and roll-on/roll-off ships were down, while transits of dry bulk vessels, tankers and cruise ships were up.
   Alem'n Zubieta said the economic slowdown is hurting the container and ro/ro business and he noted that many container carriers are combining services, eliminating sailings or reducing frequency of service, all of which reduce transits.
   To read more about how the canal authority is managing the expansion and the challenges posed by the global economic meltdown on the engineering consortia, see the March American Shipper, pages 54-60. ' Chris Dupin