San José: Costa Rica will receive a much-needed boost to its port infrastructure and its economy with the imminent start of construction on the $1bn Moin container terminal by APM Terminals, which will be the initial operator of the facility under a 33-year concession.
Ground was ceremonially broken at the weekend on what will be Central America’s most advanced port of its kind with specialised berths for containers, refrigerated cargoes and regular cargo.
The three-phase plan will begin with the construction of an artificial island west of the existing port of Moin on the country’s Caribbean coast. This should take three years to complete.
The 3km-long, 100-hectare terminal will quadruple the capacity of the existing port and should be able to handle 2.5m TEUs by 2030.
Moín’s proximity to the Panama Canal makes it ideal for transshipment traffic to Europe.
The terminal should employ 700 workers during construction and, when operational, some 600 people as administrators and dockworkers.
