APM Terminals Moin Container Terminal project, being developed under the auspices of the Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica de Costa Rica (JAPDEVA), the Board of Port Administration and Economic Development of Costa Rica’s Atlantic Coast, has received green light from Costa Rica’s environmental agency to begin construction.
The Terminal de Contenedores de Moín (TCM) project, for which a 33-year concession for the design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the facility was endorsed in 2012, will see a first phase of development scheduled for completion in 2016.
The first phase development will comprise of an access channel and turning?basin to be dredged to 16m, a new 1.5 km breakwater to be constructed with a 40-hectare container yard, 600m of quay and two berths equipped with six post?panamax cranes.
Upon the completion of the final phase, the TCM will have an area of 80 hectares, with 1500m of quay, five berths, a 2.2-km breakwater and an access channel 18m deep. The TCM project represents an overall investment—in all its phases- of approximately $1bn.
“APM Terminals is well aware of Costa Rica’s dedication to environmental protection, and consistent with our own corporate sustainability standards, we have complied with, or exceeded all environmental requirements, mindful of the local community in Limon and the people of Costa Rica,” stated APM Terminals Costa Rica managing director Paul J. Gallie.
Costa Rica, bordering Panama to the South and Nicaragua to the North in Central America, is currently the world’s largest exporter of pineapples, and the fourth largest exporter of bananas. Sugar and coffee are also major export products, with high-technology an increasingly important trade component.
The Puerto Limón/Moín port complex is the largest in Costa Rica, handling 1.05m teu in 2013. The current port is limited to vessels of up to 2,500 teu capacity. The deep-water TCM will increase the port’s annual throughput capacity by 1.3m teu at opening, with a potential build-out of 2.7m teu.
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