PANAMA CANAL NEWS

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Panama Canal expansion spearheads growth of jobs in Panama .


The construction industry, led by the Canal expansion continues to spearhead the growth of jobs in Panama.

 Over 104,000 new jobs were created in Panama during the first quarter of 2010, up 3,000 from the same period last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Finance (MOF)
The MOF also said that the majority of the new contracts were for fixed-term and per project consultancies, typical of the activities of the construction industry.
The Panama Canal, whose current expansion began in 2007, generated approximately 7,000 new jobs.
Among the positions most in demand at the waterway were technicians, engineers, specialists, and heavy equipment operators.
Another area highlighted by the MOF was the approval of work permits for foreigners.  The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare processed 3,842 permits; up 1,504 from the same period last year.
Employment in Panama is expected to continue to expand as infrastructure  projects begin like, the subway system, airports and roads.


Expansion dredger ar work


 

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(Panama's tax revenue up, Canal business down .)


Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:36    .Did you notice that there was less change hanging round in your pocket last month? Well it’s not necessarily because you have been on a spending binge.

Some of that money has moved from your pocket to the government’s.
Panama pulled in revenues of $289.9 million during  July, said Minister of Economy and Finance, Dulcidio De la Guardia, on Tuesday, August 17
De la Guardia said the revenue exceeded the estimates for this period by $18.3 million, representing an increase of 6.7 percent.
The  revenues exceeded – by $9.4 million – the income recorded for the same period last year.
The finance minister confirmed that Panama  tofally hauled in $221 million, 25 percent more than in July of last year.
But while tax revenue is up transits through the country’s most valuable asset, the Canal fell by 2.8 percent between April and June compared with the same period last year.
A report from the Panama Canal Authority says tranits were down from 3,756 to 3,476The movement of super-type ships, which require more time and resources to cross the Canal, dropped by 3.1 percent, from 1,815 to 1,758.
The report also notes that freight transport recorded a decline of 3.5 percent, from 73,068 to 71,008 tons.
Executive Vice-President of Operations Manuel Benítez, said that in transits and tonnage in general during this quarter indicate that the entity is experiencing "some signs of stability."
This trend is expected to continue in the last quarter of the Canal’s fiscal year (July to September The ACP also recoreded a decline in dry bulk transits, container ships, refrigerated cargo, tankers, and cruise ships.The loss of cruise ships also hits tourism revenue.

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Third set of locks for canal expansion will start in 2011

Saturday, 28 August 2010 15:39

Work on the third set of locks to enable the Panama Canal to take bigger ships is scheduled to begin next year saysAntonio Zaffaroni, director of the construction work being carried out by Grupo Unidos por el Canal.

The projects currently underway, are the preliminary works necessary to fully launch the construction of the third set of locks in 2011
Zaffaroni said the projects have been developed within the time  frame for which they were programmed. .
The Panama Canal expansion project is estimated at $5.25 billion and slated for completion in 2014, one hundred years after the waterway first opened.  C.C.13

 

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New website will give camera-eye view of work on Canal expansion .

   .Companies around the world are working on the  design and construction of the third locks - the largest of the four components of the work of the Panama Canal Expansion, one of the 10 largest infrastructures on the planet.

Excavation work at the Atlantic end of the CanalThe Consortium masterminding the project, Grupo Unidos (GUPC) says it is committed to compliance with social and environmental standards as well as rapprochement with  established communities in the vicinity of the works.
The consortium is composed of Sacyr Vallehermoso (Spain), Impregilo (Italy), Jan de Nul (Belgium), Constructora Urbana, SA (Panama), and f began operations August 25, 2009, developing the work of excavation, the infrastructure necessary for the production of concrete and the achievement of electromechanical parts, in addition to staffing, .

"Now we must continue with what has been agreed with the ACP to ensure that, in 2014, the country will deliver a work that promises to be high impact on the economy and trade with one of the 10 largest infrastructure of the world, ", said Antonio Zaffaroni, CEO of the group.
One crucial aspect of the design work was the filling and emptying of the locks, whose times are being supported through the use of a scale model built in the laboratories of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhone in Lyon, France. The consortium is involved with offices in Bellevue Chicago Buenos Aires, Argentina; Papendrecht, Netherlands and Milan, Italy, where they are developing the engineering works.
 GUPC currently is in the process of selecting companies that are responsible for the manufacture of gates and valves, locks, and in the final phase of the installation of garages and warehouses needed for the maintenance and repair all the machinery involved in the work. 
 As part of its commitment to transparency, GUPC has launched a website www.gupc.com.pa, where it provides current information on the progress and development of the work, and where you can access live cameras located in the Atlantic and Pacific project sites.
I don't think the site is up yet. I couldn't get in it.  C.C.13

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Canal traffic and charges to increase .
Sunday, 19 September 2010 08:01    . .Traffic in the Panama Canal is recovering from the  drop experienced because of the global recession says Canal Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta.


"Shipping traffic is recovering slowly and we have seen a small increase in recent months." said Zubieta at the "Panama Invest 2010" conference in London on Friday (September 17)

The Canal’s fiscal year comes at the end of September, and about 300 million tons of traffic is expected to have moved through the waterway in the last 12 months down from a high of 312 million tons in 2007 but a slight increase over 2009.

Shipping traffic is recovering slowly and we have seen a small increase in recent months." said Zubieta at the  "Panama Invest 2010" conference in London.
Zubieta said that the toll increase, postponed  while waiting for a recovery in the global economy, will be introduced in January.
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.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010 20:37    .Panama's economy is expected to benefit by $72 million with an extended  cruise season and additional sailings.

The Ocean DreamTwo ships The Ocean Dream of the Pullmantur Spanish chain, and the Grandeur of the Seas of Royal Caribbean will be sailing   from the Colon terminal and increased  visits on the Pacific side will push up Canal transits.

A big increase in passenger traffic is forseen with the season expanded from seven  to nine-months  With two cruise ships leaving Panama, the economic impact will be around $72 million, according to estimates by Augusto Terracina, director of Adventure 2000.

The Colon terminal where $23 million has been invested will receive 98% of cruise ships arriving on Panama's Atlantic coast.

The prospects in the Pacific are equally encouraging. The season in Flamenco Island from  September 30 will see the arrival of 68 cruises, 23% up on 2009, mainly from the Princess and Holland America America chains

Over 95%of cruise passengers arriving in Flamenco are Americans who embark in Los Angeles, USA, and end their tour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after crossing the  Canal.

Over 350 000 cruise passengers and nearly 170 000 crew members will arrive in to Panamanian ports during the season.

A representative of the Spanish chain in Panama and Central America (excluding Costa Rica) said the first Ocean Dream cruise that leaving   October 15 is  65% sold.

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1 millionth boat transits Panama Canal .

Tuesday, 28 September 2010 09:13    . .The Hong Kong ship Fortune Plum, which in Chinese forecasts Good Luck became the 1 millionth ship to transit the Panama Canal since it opened in 1914.he passage was recorded on Sept. 4 at 6:45 a.m. as the ship, carrying steel products passed out of the Canal at the Atlantic end.
The first ship that officially passed through the waterway linking two oceans was the steamer SS Ancon, on Aug. 15, 1914. Ancon and her sister ship Cristobal played a crucial role in building the canal, bringing workers and supplies, from New York to Panama.
On August 15, 1914 Ancon made the first official transit of the canal as part the opening ceremonies which were overshadowed by the start of WW I. Her sister ship Cristobal had made the first unofficial transit on August 3, delivering a load of cement, while an old French crane boat Alexandre La Valley had crossed the canal from the Atlantic in stages during construction, finally reaching the Pacific on January 7.)
Ancon was acquired by the United States Navy after the end of WW I  and fitted out as USS Ancon, a troop transport to return Americans home.
The Panama Railroad Company replaced SS Ancon in 1938 with a second SS Ancon, a larger steam turbine cargo liner which later action as US Navy Transport USS Ancon in World War Two.
An average of 14,000 ships now use the Canal annually.
The volume of traffic that goes through the Canal is about 300 million tons a year. It's busiest year was in 2007, when 312 million tons of traffic made the transit.   C.C.13
 

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Difficult times but Canal revenue continues to climb .

Tuesday, 05 October 2010 15:14        . .Panama Canal toll revenues were up 3 percent to $1,482 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30.

The figure  does not include revenue from other sources like maritime services and the sale of electricity.
The Canal also saw an increase in cargo shipments for with 1.6 million more tons of cargo transported through the Canal, for a total of 300,700,000 tons.
"We are pleased to have passed the 300-million-ton mark in a difficult year for the global economy," said Canal Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta. "We hope to maintain that growth as the global economy continues to show positive signs"
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The web site is finally up. No web cam but great pictures and video's. http://www.gupc.com.pa/
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Canal authority accord with Spanish port .


Friday, 08 October 2010 08:39   


 .Canal authority accord with Spanish port
The Panama Canal Authority and the port authority of Algeciras in Spain have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a strategic alliance to facilitate international trade and logistics activities between the two bodies.

Algeciras sits right across the bay from Gibraltar, which still flies the British flag, and is a regular bone of contention with Spain.
Panama Canal Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta says the agreement will benefit Panama because the Bay of Algeciras is at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and an important stage for the transit of cargo.

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Millionth ship through Canal honored .
Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:59    .
 .The captain of the millionth vessel to pass through the Panama Canal was presented with a commemorative plaque on Wednesday October 13.


Jian Ji captain of the bulk carrier Fortune Plum was returning from the U.S. on his way to China and Korea. The ship  made the historic transit on September 4.

The first ship that officially passed through the waterway linking two oceans was the steamer SS Ancon, on Aug. 15, 1914. Ancon and her sister ship Cristobal played a crucial role in building the canal, bringing workers and supplies, from New York to Panama.
On August 15, 1914 Ancon made the first official transit of the canal as part the opening ceremonies which were overshadowed by the start of WW I. Her sister ship Cristobal had made the first unofficial transit on August 3, delivering a load of cement, while an old French crane boat Alexandre La Valley had crossed the canal from the Atlantic in stages during construction, finally reaching the Pacific on January 7.)

The award was made by executive vice president of Channel Operations, Manuel Benitez, during a ceremony at the Miraflores locks

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I thought this was very interesting. C.C.13

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Firm guilty of defrauding US government on ACP black list .
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 14:31    .

Centennial Bridge .The U.S. Louis Berger Group which has been working on contracts for Panama’s Canal Authority (ACP) and the Environmental Authority (ANAM) has been  convicted of defrauding the US government of millions of dollars.

The company has agreed to pay $69.3 million in criminal and civil penalties for having defrauded the U.S. government in reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The payment is broken down into $18.7 million in criminal penalties, and $50.6 million  to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act  to inflate profitsr in their contracts with the U.S. government.

ACP regulations exclude from its bids to those  who have been convicted of fraud, misappropriation, theft, forgery, bribery, destruction of documents.

The company’ s web site says: “For nearly 60 years, we have been a devoted and trusted partner to U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies.”

LBG, headquartered in New Jersey,runs its Latin America operations from Panama, where it was involved in the construction of the Centennial Bridge, which opened in 2004. at a cost of $90.9 million. The company has also done work for  Anam.
Although LBG is now blacklisted by the ACP, the canal authority could consider the company for future tenders, according to a La Prensa source.

The company completed two contracts with the ACP, a service for the development of socio-environmental management plan for Lake Gatun, for $197,000 dollars, which ended in April 2009, and  consulting services to review technical studies of the expansion program, $ 564,210, completed in November 2008  It has also performed other services for the Canal unrelated to the widening.

The Department of Justice reported that Salvatore Pepe, former finance chief, and Percy Pellettieri, former comptroller of LBG, admitted in federal court to having conspired to defraud USAID.

They admitted that for every dollar of work related to contracts with USAID, billed an additional $1 40.

The frauds took place from 1999 until August 2007.
 
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 HomeNewsPublished 13:15 11.11.10
Latest update 13:15 11.11.10
Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal
Sources tell Haaretz that the recent Nicaragua-Costa Rica border incident was a trial balloon by the creators of a plan to build a new canal in Latin America.
By Shlomo Papirblat
Tags: Iran Venezuela Hugo Chavez
The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal.

Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River – the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred.

Sources in Latin America have told Haaretz that the border incident and the military pressure on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are the first step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with funding and assistance from Iran, to create a substitute for the strategically and economically important Panama Canal.

The plan has aroused concern in Washington, and the U.S. has started behind the scenes efforts to foil it.

Panama is a country with a distinctly pro-American orientation. Since its construction was completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has served as an irreplaceable link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 14,000 ships pass through the canal annually and recently the one millionth ship passed the canal since its opening.

In recent years, the amount goods passing through the canal in each direction totaled about 190 million tons. The transit fees paid by the ships and other canal-related activities account for 75 percent of the annual revenues of Panama's economy. The Panamanian economy and Panamanian stability would be in real danger of collapse if another canal took away its monopoly on shipping between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In recent years, the government of Ortega, a former Sandinista underground member, has tried to gain control of the San Juan River, which lies on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Costa Rica brought the issue before the international court in The Hague, which after careful examination of historic maps, past agreements and terrain features, determined in July 2009 that the river belonged to Nicaragua, and that the border is located on the southern bank of the river. The court also ruled that Costa Rica had the right of free passage on the river.

However, the results of this ruling are not enough to allow for the implementation of the plan formulated by Venezuela and Nicaragua. In order to build a new canal linking the two oceans, they would also need to control the southern bank of the river and the point where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Several weeks ago, Nicaraguan foreign ministry official informed Costa Rica of Nicaragua's plans to do work to deepen the channel of the San Juan River in order to improve shipping on the waterway. Costa Rica did not oppose the plans, on the condition that the work did not harm the river or the bank on the Costa Rican side of the river.

The apparent engineering project was surprisingly placed under the supervision of Eden Pastora, better known as "Commandante Cero", a hero of the former Sandinista underground. This was a hint that the work had more than a simple engineering purpose.

Two weeks ago, Pastora went to a farm of a Costa Rican citizen in the Calero Island area and told the farm owner that the area belonged to Nicaragua. The farm owner objected and subsequently farm workers were allegedly beaten and farm animals were allegedly killed. The farm owner called Costa Rican police who arrived and reported to their commanders that Nicaraguan troops had entered Costa Rican territory and raised a Nicaraguan flag.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla last week called for a special session of the Organization of American States, located in Washington, but, after a day of talks, no resolution was reached. During the talks, Venezuela supported Nicaragua's position while Panama strongly opposed it.

Chincilla announced on Wednesday that she plans to raise the issue before the United Nations Security Council and again demanded that Nicaraguan soldiers withdraw from Costa Rican territory.

Sources in Latin America consider these events, and the power demonstrated by Nicaragua, as a trial balloon by the creators of the "New Canal Plan" – Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua. Western intelligence agencies are closely following the path of heavy machinery equipment to Nicaragua as well as the activities of Iranians in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

A U.S. State Department official told Haaretz's Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya on Wednesday that the U.S. is not aware of any plans to build a new canal in Latin America.

In 2007, Chavez announced a plan to build a $350 million road connecting the two oceans and the Iranians have expressed an interest in constructing a port on the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. did not express concern about either of those initiatives.
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This story is by: Shlomo Papirblat
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Canal expansion strike ends .
Saturday, 27 November 2010 12:58    .

A six day strike by workers on the Panama Canal expansion ended on Friday (Nov 26).

Workers belonging to the Construction and Allied  Workers’ Union (SUNTRACS)  complained that the contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal S.A. (GUPC) did not pay them in full for days worked.The consortium, complained that a group of workers on the project failed to comply with an agreement to work during national holidays.

Minister of Labor and Workforce Development, Alma Cortés, said on  RPC Radio. that the agreement reached between employers and union members came after the parties put their interests and personal views aside for the welfare of the country

Cortés said that  future, agreements between the company and employees would be in writing to enable  adjustments and calculations of hours worked.

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