zoomYu Wu (left), CHEC America Marketing Director and Mariano Turnes, OPC Chief Executive Officer, seal the contract to expand Puerto Cortes. Image Courtesy: ICTSI

Operadura Portuaria Centroamericana SA de CV (OPC), a subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), has signed a contract with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) for the first phase of the expansion of the Specialized Container and Cargo Terminal in Puerto Cortes, Honduras.

The first phase covers the construction of a 350-meter long berth with a controlling depth of 15.5 meters, two trestles that will be connected to the existing yard, and dredging of the bay up to 14 meters deep.

The new berth will be equipped with two super post-Panamax quay cranes, bringing OPC’s total number of quay cranes to six.

Scheduled for completion by mid-2018, the terminal expansion will position Puerto Cortes as the most competitive port in the Caribbean, ICTSI said.

The port, located north and along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, is the country’s center of transportation and commerce, handling 85 percent of shipments to Honduras, 10 percent to El Salvador and five percent to Nicaragua, according to ICTSI.

In 2013, ICTSI was awarded a 30-year concession for the design, financing, construction, maintenance, operation and exploration of the Specialized Container and Cargo Terminal in Honduras.