Port of Amador unfinished before the second cruise season

The Maritime Authority of Panama (AMP) remains completely silent on the two-year delay in the completion of the Amador Cruise Port. The second season of cruise ships is about to begin at this terminal, since it was allowed to open without the works being 100% completed. The situation is the same today.

All this while the port structures continue to be used, with AMP’s approval, as a makeshift shipyard on top of the Panamanian state’s investment of more than $200 million in tourism.

It is a ship repair business used by two companies, Talleres Industriales and Stward Inc., the latter represented by Pablo Torres, a personal friend of AMP administrator Noriel Araúz.

Steward Inc. it comes to light not only in this deal, but also in other contracts approved by Araúz of AMP, such as the ship service contract for ship inspectors and the temporary concession at the Balboa shipyard.

AMP has not announced a new final delivery date for Amador Cruise Port, a consortium of Cruceros del Pacífico, made up of China Harbor Engineering Company (Chec) and Jan de Nul of Belgium.

Meanwhile, cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean will begin arriving at this terminal in November without it being 100% built.

AMP also did not provide information to this media about the time and money allowances approved in favor of the consortium China Harbor Engineering Company (Chec) and Jan de Nul.’

200 dollars

million were the tourism investments of the state of Panama in that area.

These were the questions that Araúz did not answer: What is the status of the construction of the Amador cruise port? What is needed to complete the job? How many money and time allowances were approved in this work? What was the original cost of the project and how much will the Amador Cruise Port end up costing? When was the last supplement given and for what additional amount was it approved? Before the start of the new cruise season, the cruise port, which is still under construction, continues to be used as a shipyard. Will AMP continue to support the use of this building created for tourism as a shipyard?

What is known is that the works will cost more than 200 million dollars, which is an amount above the reference price at the time of the tender in 2017.

In October 2017, the consortium submitted the sole bid for the Amador Cruise Port contract for $197 million.

But the consortium’s offer was significantly above the reference price for this project and in order not to declare the tender void, Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) from China and Jan De Nul Panama (JDN) agreed to lower their offer to the reference price which was set at 165.7 million dollars.

In September 2019, with Araúza already serving as AMP administrator, an additional $41 million was approved for the port, increasing the cost of the project above the consortium’s original bid.

In March of this year, Araúz answered a questionnaire in which he indirectly avoided his responsibility. He said the addition was approved by the AMP board of directors and he himself had to comply with the order.

He also justified the use of the port for cruise ships to carry out ship overhauls, an activity that continues today ahead of the start of the second cruise ship season at this terminal.

Araúz pointed out that the only thing AMP requires is that the vessels carrying out these repairs do not exceed the capacity of the port structures based on their design, and that the companies offering the shipyard service have a work permit.