Wednesday July 8, 06:13 PM
Spain's Sacyr wins bid to expand Panama Canal: official
PANAMA CITY (AFP) - A consortium led by Spain's Sacyr won a multi-billion dollar bid Wednesday to build a new set of locks that will allow giant cargo vessels to sail through the Panama Canal, the Canal Authority announced.
Adiano Espino, the Panama Canal Authority official that made the announcement at a public event, said that the winning bid received the best technical evaluation and was also the most affordable.
The "United (UNC.TO - news) for the Canal" group, which brings together Spanish, German, Italian and Panamanian companies, presented lowest bidding price, at 3.12 billion dollars. The cost was earlier estimated at 3.35 billion dollars.
The canal was built 1904-1914 by the United States, which handed control over to Panama in December 1999.
The largest ships that now use the canal carry up to 5,000 containers, but after the expansion supertankers and ships carrying as many as 12,000 containers will be able to sail through.
"The process has been crystal-clear," said Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who was present at the ceremony.
"The country has benefited and the price is even lower than the base price that the Canal Authorities had," he said.
According to the bidding rules there is still a period for the losers to appeal the result.
The "United for the Canal" group includes Spain's Sacyr Vallehermoso SA, Impregilo SpA (Milan: IPG.MI - news) of Italy, Jan de Nul NV of Belgium, and Panama's Constructora Urbana.
The group beat out bids by a consortium that included the US-based Bechtel and the Taisei (Frankfurt: 857627 - news) and Mitsubishi (MBC.IL - news) corporations of Japan -- which according to Espino asked for 4.19 billion dollars -- and a bid by the CANAL consortium, headed by Spanish companies ACS Servicios and Acciona Infraestructuras, which asked for 5.98 billion dollars.
Some 14,000 ships, comprising about five percent of annual world commerce, pass through the Central American shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
About 80 percent of Panama's economy is linked to canal activity.
The waterway's main users are the United States, China and Japan.
The government says work would be financed by a hike in tolls, which pull in some five million dollars a day.
The canal expansion project, begun in September 2007 and budgeted at 5.25 billion dollars, is expected to be completed by August 2014, 100 years after completion of the initial construction on the 80-kilometer (50-mile) canal connecting two oceans.
The third set of locks would accommodate massive vessels 366 meters (1,200 feet) in length, 49 meters (160 feet) wide and with a 15-meter (50-foot) draft.
Today, the so-called post-Panamax ships -- too wide and too long for the Panama Canal -- must circle Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America to pass between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
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