Phase Five of Kingston Terminal Expansion Project near Completion

Minister of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Robert Pickersgill, has said that phase five of the Kingston Container Terminal expansion project was entering its final stages and preliminary plans were already in place for the next expansion phase.
“The Port Authority (of Jamaica) will be pursuing the preliminary plans for the development of the next expansion phase of our transshipment activities, which will incorporate lands at Fort Augusta,” the Minister said on Wednesday (Jan. 24), as he witnessed the unloading of two new panamax cranes at the Terminal.
He noted that upon completion of the fifth phase of the project, which will cost the Port Authority of Jamaica some US$240 million, capacity at the transshipment facility would increase from 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 3.2 million TEUs and the added capacity should be utilized by 2009.
According to the Minister, the ongoing improvements at the Kingston Container Terminal “are the major ingredients enhancing Jamaica’s position in and capacity to benefit from the international shipping industry, which can be described as the engine driving the global economy”.
The cranes are the first shipment of six new super post panamax cranes, with the remaining four scheduled to arrive in August.
Minister Pickersgill said that when the remaining cranes arrive, the profile of the Terminal would feature 19 cranes including 14 super post panamax cranes; 74 straddle carries; 14 empty container stackers; 1,392 reefers to accommodate refrigerated containers; and 100 hectares of paved operational yard space and storage areas.