Panama Container Traffic on the Rise

Container traffic handled by Panama ports rose 7.2 percent in 2000 to 1,359,640 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) said on Thursday.

During 2000, cargo tonnage handled by Panamanian ports rose 7.0 percent over the year ago period to 20.65 million ton, provisional figures compiled by the AMP showed.

Growth was led by the Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT), a container port on the Atlantic coast approaches to the Panama Canal, which shifted 1.01 million TEUs to note a hefty 17.4 percent rise on 1999.

The port, a joint venture by Stevedoring Services America and local partners, completed phase three of a $300 million expansion program last year to extend the facility's waterfront and storage capacity.

Panama has seven state-owned cargo ports and 11 privately operated terminals, of which eight are located on the Atlantic coast and three on the Pacific. - (Reuters)