The Nuevo Manzanillo project will mark a before and after in the history of Mexican port infrastructure with the largest port that Mexico will have in the coming years.
With an investment of 63,613 million pesos and a capacity to house more than 10 million containers, this megaproject will consolidate Colima as a first-class international logistics center, generating jobs and economic growth for the region.
According to retired Admiral Mario Alberto Gasque Peña, general director of the National Port System Administration (ASIPONA) of the Mexican Navy (Semar), the Nuevo Manzanillo project has a surface area of 1,816 hectares, four times larger than the current port of Manzanillo.
What we are looking for is with all the experience we have in these successful results of Manzanillo, to be able to have a vision of the future of New Manzanillo, we are here with this efficiency with this way of being able to carry out these digital controls of a safe smart port, which is all the applied digitalization and even with artificial intelligence in the container counting system,” he explained.
He added that the artificial intelligence system will also be applied in the monitoring of personnel for the purpose of port security.
With all this digitalization experience, it is to apply it to ensure that the new port that is New Manzanillo meets the bases of success to be applied in a growth that is what we are observing in the movement of ships that are increasingly larger,” he said.
The capacity that this new port will have will be to house 10 million TEU’S (containers) per year and will have a public investment of 15 thousand 056 million pesos, while the private investment exceeds 48 thousand 557 million pesos.
According to Julieta Juárez Ochoa, Marketing Manager of ASIPONA Manzanillo, the construction of this new port will displace the ports of Colón in Panama and Santos in Brazil, which occupy the first and second place in Latin America.
The movement in 2023 in the area in which we are located was 3.7 million TEUs; however, we hope that with the new project, the port of Manzanillo can reach a movement of 10 million TEUs, with this, we would definitely be moving to first place in Latin America. We are currently in position 53 in the world ranking of ports with the expansion to the new Manzanillo and the movement of 10 million TEUs, we would be talking about the port of Manzanillo being positioned in 15th place in the international ranking,” she added.
The priority objective of this megaproject is to increase the operational capacity of the port of Manzanillo; in addition to improving efficiency and competitiveness in the region.
The creation of jobs is expected to be 11,132 direct jobs and 28,626 indirect jobs, which will generate an increase in the local and national economic impact.
Construction stage
With the flag-off by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo on November 23, the construction of this mega-project begins, which will be the flagship project for the current administration.
The works include construction dredging, complementary works and construction of specialized terminals and are expected to be completed in 2030.
It should be noted that the works have an environmental impact study with the mitigation measures implemented to minimize the impact in the area.
Source: excelsior
