Port Infrastructure Investments to Continue Despite COVID-19

During his participation in the recent webinar titled “Current Situation of Ports In The Face Of COVID-19,” Fernando Bustamante, General Director of Ports at the General Coordination of Ports & Merchant Marine, declared that investments in Mexico’s ports were unaffected by the COVID-19 sanitary emergency. Bustamante said this is because APIs’ development projects and agreements with the national and international private sector continue to be executed despite logistical limitations. Bustamante expanded on this by saying that APIs have active contracts signed not only with local, state and federal institutions, but also with foreign ports in the US and in other nations. This allows them to adopt global standards and objectives to keep development work going throughout the pandemic. This also allows sanitary rules and measures to be compliant not only with standards established by the Mexican Ministry of Health but also with those set forth by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). All of this, according to Bustamante, allows the Mexican port system to be an important piece of a larger global puzzle that will play an enormous role in the international economic recovery expected to happen after the pandemic. To read our interview with Bustamante, click here.

Bustamante considers the port of Veracruz port as an example of this ongoing development. This ambitious project, which has spanned a number of years already, has continued throughout COVID-19 shutdowns. Bustamante says north bay infrastructure is close to being finished; that section’s container terminal is already operational. At the same time, that port’s fluid, grain and mineral terminals are expected to go online this year. In an additional participation, Luis German Ochoa González, Director of Port Development at the General Coordination of Ports & Merchant Marine, also pointed to investments taking place at the La Paz port in the state of Baja California Sur, which will enable the port to increase its natural gas storage and management capacity. This project is expected to play a large role in increasing the energy generation capacity of the entire Baja California peninsula. Ochoa González made it clear that each port’s individual Development Master Plan goes a long way toward generating confidence and certainty for private investors.