SHIPPING SERVICES
Manzanillo International Terminal in foreground and cruise ship terminal Colon 2000
contaminants and provide final disposal of contaminants and material employed in any recovery. In 2008, it opened new offices in
Honduras and Guatemala and also added Costa Rica to its offshore business with a basic response centre in Puerto Limon. OPC had formed a partnership in Nicaragua in 2005 where it began operations providing environmental services to oil companies, including soil remediation and land farming just outside Managua, capital of Nicaragua. Its partner company, Environmental Protection & Control, is currently in negotiations with port users and the Port Authority to provide oil spill response and other services to the vessels that berth in Corinto and Puerto Sandino oil terminal on the Pacific side. OPC has constant investment in newer
equipment and developing other services such as oily water and slop removal from vessels calling Panama as required by the MARPOL agreement. Two small and a medium barges were recently acquired that operate in Balboa and Cristobal.
Port Services The 2004 set up of Port & Cargo Co
by the Panama Maritime Group, marked the introduction of outsourcing in the maritime industry in Panama when it started offering stevedoring and port workers to Evergreen’s Colon Container Terminal (CCT) on the Atlantic coast. In December 2006, the group responded to increased demand and formed a separate company, Port Outsourcing Services (POS), to provide identical services to Panama Ports Co (PPC)’s port of Balboa on the Pacific side and Cristobal on the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal.
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Today, Port & Cargo has grown to 270 workers, while Port Outsourcing Services has 750 employees. The benefits for the ports are substantial. Giving independent contractors the ability to manage their workforce has considerably reduced the
Outsourcing has reduced the cost of personnel and the pressure to find skilled staff to cope with the large turnover in stevedoring.
need for port personnel and increased productivity, says port outsourcing services gm, Hugo Torrijos Dajer. Outsourcing has reduced the cost of personnel and the pressure to find skilled staff to cope with the large turnover in stevedoring, say port operators. Port operators can concentrate exclusively on moving containers – which is their business – and not on administration of the labour force. The ports of Balboa and Cristobal, and Colon Container Terminal, which have all experienced rapid growth in their facilities, are no longer involved in resolving labour disputes that are difficult to solve because the ports are administrated by foreign companies. Ports operators leave Port Cargo Corp and POS to deal with the problems, and in fact, POS has a warehouse and a 32-mechanic workshop working 24/7 at Balboa’s Pier 13. POS has teamed up with heavy
machinery companies Capacity Trucks and Cummins Engines in order ‘to offer full- service contracts for equipment maintenance,’ says Torrijos Dajer. Capacity Tucks, from Longview, Texas, has provided the majority of trucks operating in Panamanian ports and Cummins Engines is the leading provider of port engines. In addition to the outsourcing of services for containers, POS has created a subsidiary Tecniport that now offers ‘full outsourcing for trucks’, he explains. Techniport is the first company of its kind providing a rate per container that encompasses everything related to moving a container from one point to another. The company has grown into managing trucks, truck drivers and dealership for trucks spare parts and ‘the response has immediate and amazingly successful,’ says Dajer. The three companies may extend their
scope of action with the addition of new terminals on Panama’s port scene, which have shown interest in outsourcing the full truck system on their new installations.
Shipping Agencies Associated Steamship Agents
(
www.shipagents.com), has been operating in the country for nearly 120 years and is considered the ‘dean’ of shipping agencies. The original owner Capt. William Andrews opened an office in the Atlantic city of Colon in 1889 - the same year the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique ceased operations in Panama. Since then – and through purchases, mergers and name changing – the company has developed into the present organisation, which maintains offices at Balboa and
PANAMA MARITIME REVIEW 2011/12
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