The Puerto de Barranquilla business group, under the Sociedad Portuaria Puerto de Barranquilla, acquires, through an investment of approximately USD 40 million dollars, the Bitco container terminal. This decision, also in line with an investment plan for USD 56 million up to 2020, focused on Improving infrastructure and new equipment; In technology and automation of internal processes; and the modernization and optimization of container yards, warehouses, docks, and scales. Now, the acquisition will increase by 25% the productivity of the port in what refers to its movement of cargo.
The closing of the agreement had been finalized two weeks ago, despite the fact that since August of last year the Port Society already operated Bitco. This growth is expected to strengthen offshore operations as they will now have 2 additional docks and 37 million square meters available with a storage capacity of 2,890 TEUs.
Through the year up to September, the Port Society reports a mobilization of 987,000 tons in TEUs, 523.00 tons of general cargo, 876,000 tons of coking coal and 1.5 million tons of bulk cargo.
As for the projected volume to be handled by the Port Society of Barranquilla, they mention a growth of the load from the current 4.6 million tons in 2017 to 5.1 million tons by 2018.
The President of the Port Society of Barranquilla commented to El Heraldo newspaper that “In the last four years we have focused on consolidating ourselves as a logistics platform” with a strong focus on offshore operations and also bulk handling, general cargo, and containerized cargo to which they add a free zone.
