Port-of-Spain port expansion P1 due 2006

The first phase of a 500mn Trinidadian dollar (US$82mn) expansion at the port of Trinidad & Tobago's capital Port-of-Spain will be completed in 2006, national Port Authority (PATT) chairman Noel Garcia was quoted as saying in The Trinidad Guardian. The upgrade will include the reconstruction of three berths as well as infrastructure improvements to employee facilities and call centers. This Monday a new Gottwald mobile crane was commissioned at the port. At the same time as the expansion is gathering steam (it officially kicked off in 1994), the port authority and the Seamen & Waterfront Workers Trade Union are working together to improve port productivity and service, the report added. This year the PATT aims to have handled 350,000 containers (the port's capacity), up from 300,000 containers in 2002. By the end of the expansion's first phase, the port's capacity should reach 500,000 containers/year. International companies are presenting proposals to invest in port operations, with a foreign partner expected to own 51% of operations and the government the remainder, BNamericas reported in September, however, no companies were named. Trinidad & Tobago has 1.7 million inhabitants, of which 300,000 live in Port-of-Spain. The country's chief products include petroleum, steel, processed foods, fertilizers, cement cotton and sugar.