Tristar Port has invested more than $100m on infrastructure that the state has not provided, and plans a further $150m within two years, chief executive Cristobal Schlaubitz told TOC Americas in Cartagena.
Isaac Ray Wingfield, head of ports and global transportation at AECOM, said expiring concessions across Latin America will force new operators into major capital spending within six years.
At TOC Americas in Cartagena, panellists from Port Everglades, JAXPORT, APM Terminals Mobile, TRANSFERPORT and BOXBAY set out how ports, roads, rail and storage technology connect cargo to inland markets.
Denson White, Intermodal North America lead for APM Terminals, told TOC Americas that Mobile, Alabama’s rail reach and a shift towards inland distribution are reshaping how Gulf cargo moves across the Americas.
COMPAS’s Víctor Carrasco and Peru’s port authority chief Jorge Chávez told delegates at TOC Americas that connectivity and efficiency, not extra concrete, decide whether a terminal becomes a true trade node.
From Hanseatic Global Terminals to Peru’s port authority, four panellists at TOC Americas agreed that a terminal’s value is decided by the roads, rail and systems beyond its gates.
Paulo Ruy of Hanseatic Global Terminals says shifting governments have stalled Brazil’s Santos expansion and clouded Mexican port options, even as Latin American terminals run out of capacity.
Tom van Eynde of TiL Group told TOC Americas the operator is investing more aggressively than ever, leaning on top customer MSC to offset political risk, and building ahead of regulation in Baltimore.
Grupo Puerto de Cartagena expects to move a little more than 5 million containers this year, as Colombia’s port modernisation decree sets investment conditions alongside new performance commitments, Alfonso Salas said.
Henry Ziemer of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies warned that Washington’s expectations for US ownership of Panama’s next port tenders could do more damage than the financing costs worrying the panel.
At TOC Americas in Cartagena, GPC’s commercial and talent chiefs argued that ports will compete on artificial intelligence and people, not cranes, citing a 27% reliability figure and a three-pillar response to disruption.