News / CMA CGM's new 'Turbo-charged' terminal opens in Colombia

Photo: CMA CGM

CMA CGM has berthed its first vessel at its newly built Puerto Antioquia terminal, located in Colombia’s Turbo port, the gateway to the country’s fruit exporting region.

The 5,900 teu CMA CGM Fiordland made the inaugural call at the Antioquia Offshore Container Terminal this week.

Photo: CMA CGM

Due to severe draught restrictions in the Gulf of Uraba, local fruit exports – principally bananas and avocados – would be barged from Turbo’s docks into the bay, with boxes loaded onto container vessels in a mid-stream operation that meant carriers were forced to deploy geared containerships to the port.

The facility, built by CMA Terminals in partnership with local players and international investors, features a new quay and yard built out into the bay, connected to the mainland via a 3.8km bridge, and is “designed to transform Colombia’s logistics landscape of perishable exports and to support the country’s growing role in international trade”.

The capacity of the first phase amounts to 650,000 teu a year, equivalent to 6,600 weekly container moves. It has three ship-to-shore cranes and yard handling equipment and is able to service vessels of up to 15,000 teu, the largest able to traverse the Panama Canal.

“The launch of Puerto Antioquia reflects CMA CGM Group’s long-term commitment to Colombia and Latin America, as well as our ambition to support the region’s trade development and job creation enhancement, through efficient and modern port infrastructure,” said Christine Cabau, EVP of assets and operations.

CMA CGM will now shift its Turbo calls to the new port on its standalone North Europe-Latin America PCRFXL service – the CMA CGM Fiordland was this week assigned to the Asia-South America east coast SEAS3 service CMA CGM operates in conjunction with Maersk, according to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database.

The PCRFXL string, which launched at the beginning of the year, deploys seven vessels with an average capacity of 6,000 teu and has a rotation of Dunkirk-London Gateway-Rotterdam-Antwerp-Dunkirk-Le Havre-Fort de France-Kingston-Cartagena-Moin-Turbo-Santa Marta.

“Following the acquisition of Santos Brazil, this project further strengthens our global terminal network in Latin America and reinforces our role as a trusted partner for customers and local stakeholders to support their competitivity on international markets,” Ms Cabau added.

CMA CGM will be followed by Maersk, which conducted berthing trials at the new port last year.

The 2,556 teu EM Corfu is scheduled to arrive at the port on 18 February, deployed on the Danish carrier’s Turbo feeder that operates a pendulum string between Colombia and the Panamanian transhipment hub of Manzanillo.

Maersk is also set to include the terminal on its South America-North America NAE service, with the 3,830 teu Polar Costa Rica due to berth on 21 February. The service deploys three ships and features fruit export calls at Cartagena, Turbo, and Moin, with discharging at Philadelphia, Norfolk and Savannah.

CMA CGM also argued that the new facility could offer competition to Cartagena for a share of the country’s container imports, claiming it is 33% closer to Colombia’s main production centres than Caribbean terminals.

“Situated only 300km from Medellín and 700km from Bogotá, the terminal offers a much shorter route to and from Colombia’s major economic zones, compared with existing Atlantic ports such as Cartagena, reducing distances by half to Medellín and by one-third to Bogotá,” the company said.