Posted on October 29, 2025
As the Panama Canal’s operator turns its focus to developing new port terminals on both sides of the trade conduit, it has launched a “consultation process” designed to identify possible partners that would control the gateways.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) made the announcement Monday after holding an invite-only meeting including members of both major container shipping lines and global port and terminal operators.
In August, the ACP indicated it planned to sell rights to two plots of land reserved for the construction of two new ports near the canal.
These two ports would be individual transshipment terminals—Corozal on the Pacific Ocean and Telfers serving the Atlantic Ocean. Combined, the two terminals are expected to boost the country’s overall container-handling capacity from 9.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 15 million TEUs annually.
The construction of the terminals is expected to cost $2.6 billion, with both scheduled to begin operations in 2029 upon completion.
As part of the process, the authority will conduct a market and feasibility study for both terminals. Following this stage, a general project plan will be developed which will lead to the initiation of a special process to select a concessionaire for each terminal.
The selection will include a pre-qualification phase, a one-on-one dialogue stage with pre-qualified participants, and finally, the awarding of the concession contracts.
The final phase of the selection is expected to conclude in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Approximately 8,100 direct and indirect jobs are expected to be generated during construction, the ACP says, with that number jumping to 9,000 once operations begin. The project is forecast to provide an economic impact of between 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent of Panama’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Representatives from terminal operators included Maersk-owned APM Terminals, Cosco Shipping Ports, CMA Terminals, DP World, Port Houston, PSA International and Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) Terminal Investment Limited.
The ocean carriers consisted of CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen, Hapag Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), Maersk, MSC, Ocean Network Express (ONE), Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), Yang Ming and ZIM.
“We think that if it isn’t done here in Panama, it will happen elsewhere in the region, and we have to decide whether we want to stay competitive,” said Víctor Vial, vice president of finance at the ACP, at the Monday press conference.
For the ACP, and for Panama in general, the desire to foster more competition at the canal comes as geopolitical tensions have put the waterway and the country under the microscope from both American and Chinese interests.
A proposed $23 billion mega-deal which would see Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison sell off the Balboa and Cristóbal ports, as well as more than 40 others worldwide, to a consortium of MSC and BlackRock, has been in limbo since the summer.
That acquisition occurred weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office, and was considered a massive win for his administration as it aims to curb Chinese influence in the region.
Conversely, Beijing and China’s President Xi Jinping were unhappy with the deal, with China’s antitrust regulator opening a probe into that transaction, and later pushing for state-owned Cosco’s inclusion.
The acquisition is under scrutiny from some in Panama’s government as well, with the country’s Supreme Court currently presiding over a lawsuit that alleges Hutchison’s recent 25-year extension to operate the Balboa and Cristóbal ports is illegal. If the high court rules in the favor of the comptroller general who filed the suit, the port sale would be annulled.
If the contract is voided, it would take between 12 and 18 months to get a new concession tender ready, said José Ramón Icaza, Panama’s minister of canal affairs.
“We don’t control the scenarios, but what I can say is that President [José Raúl] Mulino and a few members of his cabinet, including myself, are working on a plan for any of those scenarios and that if we have to take control of Balboa and Cristóbal we don’t create a disruption of the supply chain in the region,” Icaza said.
The constant tug-of-war among the parties has driven concerns among ACP leadership that a concentration of terminal operators at the canal-adjacent ports would pose risks to the waterway’s neutrality.
Panama’s $2.6 billion port project is one tranche of a wider 10-year, $8.5 billion plan to modernize the canal by 2023.
The plan includes the $1.6 billion construction of the Indio Rio reservoir, which will be built to supplement the canal’s main supply of water from Lake Gatún and add capacity for an additional 11 to 13 daily transits.
Additionally, the other major project within the 10-year blueprint is a 76-kilometer (47-mile) liquefied gas pipeline that could transfer up to 2.5 million barrels per day between the Corozal and Telfers terminals without sailing them through the canal.
