ICTSI Secures USD 260m Loan to Modernize Mexico’s Largest Port

Philippines-based port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has through its subsidiary Contecon Manzanillo S.A. de C.V. secured a USD 260-million project finance facility with International Finance Corp., Inter-American Development Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and KfW Ipex Bank.

The loan, which has a tenor of 12 years and a long availability period of four years, is intended at helping ICTSI increase the handling capacity of Manzanillo Port and shorten delivery times for Pacific Coast cargoes from the port.

The investment will allow the Contecon Manzanillo S.A. terminal – which currently handles more than 60 percent of Mexico’s Pacific container traffic – to receive larger ships and offer higher quality services at a time when international trade across the Pacific is growing quickly.

Once expanded, the terminal will feature a capacity of 2.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units. The development project will be carried out in three stages. The first stage will bring the terminal’s capacity to 750,000 TEUs and the second stage will see the terminal’s capacity reach 1.4 million TEUs.

“Deep-water port capacity is in short supply throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and IDB is pleased to support ICTSI’s efforts to add modern port capacity to the Mexican Pacific Coast,” said Jean-Marc Aboussouan, Chief of the IDB´s Infrastructure Division, which contributed to the loan with USD 117.5 million.

“Modern and efficient port infrastructure is essential to Mexico’s growth and development, and we are delighted to support this upgrade of Manzanillo Port in partnership with ICTSI,” said Gabriel Goldschmidt, IFC Head of Infrastructure for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“This investment will speed up export and import times across the Pacific and help Mexico take advantage of increased trade flows as a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, also yielding lower costs for shippers, shipping lines and consumers.”

The USD 567 million port upgrade is expected to raise government revenues with higher concession fees and tax payments, and will employ more than 850 operational and managerial workers by 2020.

The IDB financing package also includes a USD 25 million loan from the China Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean, administered by the Bank.

KfW IPEX-Bank said it was providing a USD 52.5 million loan partly to help finance the acquisition of container cranes delivered by the Finnish supplier Cargotec.