Global Ports Forum

March 22, 2011

Jamaican Port Authority has announced plans to expand the Port of Kingston at a cost of US$200 million.

The expansion of the port in the country’s capital of Kingston, is seen by the authority as being essential if the port is to capitalise on the influx of larger vessels stemming from the completion of the Panama Canal expansion in 2014.

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Port Authority, Noel Hylton, told the Jamaican Information Service that by 2014 the port expects to see a rise from 39 to 149 of “ultra large” carriers calling at the port by 2014.

“These ships will certainly have a tremendous impact on world trade and of course, on ports. What is quite evident is that only a few ports will be able to accommodate these mega ships,” Hylton said at a Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) Board of Directors forum.

The US$200 million project involves the dredging of the port’s channel and turning basin to approximately 16m to accomodate mega vessels, plus the option of expanding the port into Fort Agusta. Here the project will enable additional berthing of 1,500m and the development of a 173 acres of yard space and value-added logistics, according to the JIS.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Port Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.