| The country has high hopes for container shipping. | ||||||
The locals call it the ‘Megapuerto’ and perhaps less for its size than its importance for the Dominican Republic’s economy. The $277 million Caucedo port development on the country’s southern coast aims to transform the Dominican Republic into an important transshipment center for the entire Caribbean region. The port project, located just 24 kilometers east of Santo Domingo and close to Las Americas International Airport, also has positive implications for the country’s flagging free trade zones. Robert Grassi, president and chief executive officer of US port developer and operator CSX World Terminals, says, “[The Dominican Republic’s] central location in the Caribbean region also will allow Caucedo to develop quickly into a strategic shipping hub for markets in the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America.”
CSX World Terminals and Caucedo Development Corporation (CDC) formed a joint venture to develop a deep-water container terminal facility on the Caucedo peninsula within the Dominican Republic. Three prominent local businessmen are shareholders in CDC: Jaak Rannik, of the shipping company Agencias Navieras B&R, industrial developer Samuel Conde, and Manuel Enrique Tavares, chairman of the Itabo Industrial Park. CSX already has a 38-year history in the Dominican Republic, operating the port at Rio Haina, near Santo Domingo.
Manuel Garmilla, general manager of CSX World Terminals Dominican Republic, says the project should revive the fortunes of the depressed local community of Boca Chica and he estimates the port will employ as many as 5,000 people when operating at full capacity. Garmilla says one of two berths and container warehousing will be complete by November 2003.
CDC broke ground in February and is developing the breakwater and quay. The new terminal facility will include a free trade zone park with direct access to both the new Caucedo container terminal and Las Americas International Airport. The 600-meter berth has been dredged to 15 meters, deep enough to receive larger shipping container vessels at the terminal. There will be two berths with four container cranes, with reach stackers to handle all the traffic the terminal can generate. The 50 hectares of container yard will be equipped with the latest generation rubber-tired gantry cranes and related support equipment.
The Caucedo container terminal is likely to become the primary facility for container shipping to and from the Dominican Republic. Its central location in the Caribbean makes it a convenient transshipment point for Central America, the Caribbean and the north coast of South America. “It is a great place to end vessel deployment and go back to US, Europe and the Far East,” says Garmilla. Other investors clearly think transshipment for the Dominican Republic makes sense. French and American investors are planning to invest $1.4 billion in another mega port, the Balaguiere-Transdominicana de Desarrollo, at Montecristi, bordering Haiti. Like the Punta Caucedo port, it will have an industrial shipyard, an international airport and a free trade zone area.
Caucedo Development Company is close to signing project financing, a syndicated ‘B’ loan arranged by Canada’s Scotiabank and a $50 million “A” loan from the International Finance Corporation.