Evergreen adds berth at Colon, Panama terminal

The Evergreen Group’s Colon Container Terminal will be equipped to handle the much larger containerships that will be able to transit the Panama Canal when its expansion project is completed early next year.    Evergreen Group’s Colon Container Terminal, S.A. (CCT) held a ceremony yesterday to mark the completion of its newly built Berth No. 4.
   The new berth undergoing various system tests and is scheduled to commence operation in the first quarter of 2016.
   Berth No. 4 is 16.5 meters in depth and is equipped with three super post-panamax gantry cranes capable of handling 23 rows of containers. Together with Berth No. 3, the facility offers an overall quay length of 640 meters, which can accommodate larger container ships of up to 14,000 TEUs.
   The enlarged locks and other improvements being made to the Panama Canal, which are expected to be completed early next year, will allow ships with capacity of 13,000-14,000 TEUs to transit the waterway, up from about 5,000 TEUs today.
  The overall handling capacity of CCT is expected to increase from its current level of 1.5 million TEUs to 2.4 million TEUs.
   CCT said it will continue to extend the quay length of Berth No. 3 and Berth No. 4 to 780 meters. When that work is completed, around the first quarter of 2017, the facility will be able to handle two large vessels of 12,000–14,000 TEUs simultaneously.
   Juan Carlos Varela,  the president of Panama and Jorge Barakat Pitty, the administrator of the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), were among the dignitaries who joined Evergreen Chairman Yen-I Chang for the ribbon cutting.
   CCT is located on the Atlantic side of Panama Canal and is used as a hub for cargo moving to and from North America, South America and the Caribbean.
   Bronson Hsieh, Evergreen Group’s second vice group chairman said, “CCT is an important container hub catering for the whole region and offers trans-shipment services to many international shipping lines. Evergreen’s investment in upgrading the terminal facility indicates our commitment to the smooth and efficient operation of the whole international supply chain.”