Jamaica’s new transshipment port

Abstract

When the new locks of the Panama Canal are finished in 2015 Post Panamax vessels are able to sail through the Panama Canal. This will increase the container traffic intensity through the Caribbean. China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) wants to anticipate on this expansion of the Panama Canal by investing in a US$1.5 billion transshipment port in the Caribbean. Jamaica is an interesting location to realize this port, because of its ideal central position in the Caribbean and its location lies in the doorway of the Panama Canal. CHEC aims for the Goat Islands in Jamaica as their location for the new port. Normally the Jamaican government welcomes foreign investments of CHEC with open arms, but the Goat Islands are an environmentally protected area. Recently, this led to many complains by environmentalists. The new port can only be successful if it has a good competitive position with respect to other ports. The new port in Jamaica is a location with high potency to accommodate the container vessels which have ports at the East Coast of North America as destination. To attract shipping companies to the new transshipment port in Jamaica the price and efficiency of the new port must be competitive with other ports. As the new port of Jamaica doesn’t have a large hinterland and focusses mainly on transshipment, shipping companies are not bounded to Jamaica and can switch easily to other ports. The most competitive ports are Mariel (Cuba) and Freeport (the Bahamas). This report proposes designs and alternative locations for the new port. To find the ideal location for a new port in Jamaica different potential areas are selected and studied. The first steps resulted in sixteen possible locations for the port. Two Multi Criteria Analyses (MCA’s) resulted in a selection of four locations. Those possible locations for the new port are: the Goat Islands, Jackson Bay, Maccary Bay, and Little Bay. The best location is not found, because all the four locations are well-matched for their designed level of detail. Therefore the recommendation is made that all the four locations should be designed in a higher level of detail, so the decision makers can make well informed choices for the people of Jamaica. Because the media attention, the Jamaican government, and CHEC are more focusing on the Goat Islands than on the other locations, the location Goat Islands is designed further into detail. For designing the port the total surface of the port of 12 km2 is divided into port area for transshipment (4 km2) and area for the use of industry (8 km2). The transshipment area has a quay length of 3 kilometer, which provides enough berthing space to handle seven Post Panamax ships and one Panamax ship simultaneously. The maximum expected throughput of 7 million TEU per year is found. The transshipment area is also designed into further detail. Super Post Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, multi trailer systems and rail mounted gantry cranes are most suitable for the port. The hinterland connection is also designed. A road connection is needed and a railway connection is designed as an option. The industrial surface can be used for many different facilities. These facilities are the assembling of gantry cranes for the Americas and creating cement and steel for export purposes. These activities need quay length which is included in the design of the total layout. Also space is reserved for a manufacturing facility, a logistics center, a LNG power plant, and a major IT facility. The extreme wave conditions for the new port are investigated to come up with the design loads. Extreme waves with a return period of 1/200 years give a surge level of 2.0 meter and wave heights of 4.0 meters at the port entrance. Behind the port is found a higher surge level of 2.5 meters. Next to the extreme conditions the downtime of the port due to waves is established. Tropical storms are not strong enough to cause downtime, because of the sheltered area of Portland Bight. Only during hurricanes the port is not operational. The economical, social, and environmental impacts of the new port are described. For the new port the most favorable port model and a finance scheme are found. A private service port model with full concession in combination with a Build, Operate, and Transfer contract (BOT) is advised. The land will still be owned by the Jamaican government, but CHEC will fulfill both the functions of port authority and port operator. An environmental impact assessment has to be performed, because there are more issues besides the destruction of Little Goat Island, harming the fish sanctuary, and the impact on the total Portland Bight. Also these three issues should be investigated in detail. A SWOT analysis is carried out to find the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The main opportunity and threat is the change in expected throughput. To deal with this uncertainty an adaptive port planning is designed.