Puerto Rico Maritime Overview
October 22,2007

The Puerto Rico Ports Authority is the owner and administrator of all maritime facilities on the island, which include the ports of San Juan, Guánica, Guayanilla, Guayama, Yabucoa, Arecibo, Fajardo, Vieques and Culebra.

The Port of San Juan received visits from 661 cruise ships, and moved 1.3 million passengers and 9.8 million tons of cargo during fiscal 2004. That is the most recent accurate data available.

The port installations in San Juan consist of a total 22,700 lineal feet of berthing space; 1,100,000 square feet of transit shed area; 1,500,000 square feet of open storage area; and 105 acres of marshalling yards. The majority of the facilities are located in Puerto Nuevo and Isla Grande.

The Puerto Rico Ports Authority plans to redesign its port facilities in the Puerto Nuevo cargo area to accommodate more-efficient and appropriate land use. These plans include reassigning space leased to shipping companies and the elimination of activities unrelated to maritime operations, such as warehouses and food distribution companies. Plans to eliminate Avenue C in Puerto Nuevo and close off the area to nonshipping traffic to increase space for cargo and container handling are under way. To meet future demand for space, the port authority purchased 30 acres of land worth $11 million in the Isla Grande area, including a dry dock being refurbished at a cost of $4 million. Once the transfer of all cargo operations is completed, they will be concentrated in an area specially designated for this usage.

Because of the expected increase in passenger and cargo movement, the port authority has proposed a $196.5 million capital improvement program covering the period from 2003 to 2008 for its island-wide maritime facilities. Expansion projects at the Puerto Nuevo cargo zone include a $14.4 million refurbishment of Piers “E” and “F” and the $9 million rehabilitation works of Piers “N” and “O,” which are finished.

Upcoming projects include the $20 million expansion of Pier 16 and the $25.4 million construction of a new wharf at Isla Grande’s south side. In addition, another of the island’s key ports, Mayagüez, received 273 vessels, which represented a 12.5 percent increase from the previous year. The Puerto Rico Ports Authority also completed the transfer of these facilities to the Port of Mayagüez Commission.

Plans to move the breakbulk cargo operations from San Juan to a new port at Ponce in Southern Puerto Rico were dropped this month after port management and labor protested the move.

According to Fernando Bonilla, port authority executive director, breakbulk cargo operations will remain in the capital for the next eight years while authorities work out an agreement over a possible new location.

Odyssea Stevedoring and trans-Caribbean maritime companies, which load and unload breakbulk cargo at the San Juan port, have approved a new plan to move operations to a nearby pier by 2009, as construction work to upgrade the San Juan waterfront by 2015 gets under way.

Shipping interests resisted the move to Ponce because it lacks adequate infrastructure, especially warehouse space and highway connections to the rest of the island.

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