TOC Americas 2026 · Day 3 highlights
Thursday 22 October · Cartagena
Day 3 of TOC Americas 2026 in Cartagena: 7 stories from CSC LIVE and TECH TOC.
Four panellists weigh growth and freight costs in the Great Caribbean
Dr Curtis Dennie, Maritime Specialist at the CARICOM Secretariat, told a regional panel at TOC Americas in Cartagena that freight costs in the Caribbean run at almost four times the global average, with around 90% of imports arriving by sea. Cristobal Schlaubitz, chief executive officer of Tristar Port in Guyana, said container volumes there are projected to rise more than 30% this year as the country’s oil boom strains berths and dredging capacity. Panellists from Puerto Bahía in Cartagena and Port of St Maarten set out contrasting challenges, from double-handled cargo to tourism dependency, before Dennie said: “We don’t need another study in the Caribbean. The solutions are there.”
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Five things the Great Caribbean panel said about growth and risk
Dr Curtis Dennie, CARICOM’s maritime specialist, told the Great Caribbean regional forum at TOC Americas 2026 that fragmented infrastructure and high costs are holding back the region’s ports. Freight costs in the Caribbean run almost four times the global average, he said, while the region imports almost 78% of its food, mostly from North America. Panellists also pointed to Guyana’s oil-driven cargo growth and Cartagena’s congestion as pressing challenges, with Dennie insisting the bloc has enough research already: “We don’t need another study in the Caribbean. The solutions are there.”
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CARICOM says Caribbean freight costs run four times the global average
Dr Curtis Dennie, Maritime Specialist at the CARICOM Secretariat, told delegates at TOC Americas in Cartagena that freight costs in the Caribbean run almost four times the global average. Ocean transport carries about 90% of the region's imports and almost 78% of its food, mostly from North America, he said, as the Caribbean's Maritime Connectivity Index has fallen over the past 15 years. Alexander Gumbs, chief executive officer of the Port of St. Maarten, said no two destinations face the same challenges, pointing to small islands with no manufacturing base of their own: “There is no manufacturing industry, there is no real manufacturing.”
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Guyana’s oil boom outpaces port investment, says Tristar chief
Cristobal Schlaubitz, chief executive of Tristar Port, told TOC Americas in Cartagena that Guyana’s government budget is set to triple next year as oil production climbs towards 1.5 million barrels a day, even as the country’s ports remain almost entirely privately funded. Tristar has invested more than $100m building its own barges, piling rigs and dredging capacity on the Demerara River, and plans a further $150m over the next two years, Schlaubitz said. He named the country’s shortage of workers as the next big obstacle: “The country does not have enough people for the development that’s coming.”
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Concession cycle to trigger billions in port investment, says AECOM
Isaac Ray Wingfield, head of ports and global transportation at AECOM, told TOC Americas in Cartagena that concessions across Latin America are approaching expiry within the next six years, a cycle he expects to force new operators into heavy reinvestment. Wingfield pointed to Peru, where new ports have come online “automated” and already using digital technologies ready for deployment elsewhere. He cautioned that administrative readiness varies by country and that some mineral export projects will need capacity that “don’t exist right now.” “Concession periods are getting ready to expire over the next 6 years, and I think it’s going to cause a tremendous amount of reinvestment,” he said.
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Electrical risk, sensors and fire: four views on terminal safety
Antonio Ledesma of ESL Power Systems told a Tech Talk session on terminal safety at TOC Americas 2026 in Cartagena that overriding an electrical safety interlock leaves an operator with no protection at all, warning that terminal equipment can carry 480 volts against the 110–250 volts found in most homes. Ledesma said ESL Power Systems builds outlets that trip the breaker if a plug is pulled before it has been de-energised, and panellists Joerg Spiegelhalter of SICK AG and Fredrik Rönnquist of Fogmaker applied the same logic to sensors and fire suppression. “If they’re bypassing the safety system by doing that, that safety system doesn’t work at all,” Ledesma said.
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The ROI of designing safety systems that cannot be overridden
Antonio Ledesma of ESL Power Systems told a TOC Americas 2026 panel that safety systems must be engineered so the safe way of working is also the only practical one, from mechanical plug interlocks to ground-fault detection on reefer stacks. Harry Palmer of TT Club said a single reefer losing its cold chain, carrying blood plasma or high-grade tuna, can cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single container.” Fredrik Rönnquist of Fogmaker argued ports should treat protection as an investment rather than a cost: “the best accident you can have is the one that never occurs.”
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