In a bid to attract light manufacturing and assembly activities, the Panama Canal is focusing its efforts on a new logistics zone, as well as the construction of its new transhipment container terminal at Port Corozal, which it will request proposals for once an environmental impact study has been completed in February, 2016, according to the Journal of Commerce.
The new transhipment hub at Corozal aims to limit the number of port calls along the Western Hemisphere for post-Panamax ships.
Jorge Quijano, Administrator of the Panama Canal, said: “Our main business is transit in the canal and that will be there. What we're adding is additional magnetism by having more capacity, more transshipment capacity.
“Transshipment is best located at a central location — at a hub. And Panama is that central location. So don't send the big ship going down south if you can have a small ship doing that route.”
Dan Smith, Partner at Tioga Group, said: “I know that for a while Wal-Mart transshipped cargo for Houston at Panama where they were splitting off West Coast volume from East Coast volume. I think transshipment in Panama is going to be a very live option, particularly for the Gulf Coast.”