Turkish operator Yilport announced that in the first quarter of 2024 it will sign the concession agreement with the Salvadoran government. ECA has not confirmed.
Turkish-origin operator Yilport has announced that it will sign a concession agreement to manage the ports of Acajutla and La Unión for 100 years.
Based on the memorandum of understanding that we signed with the government of El Salvador, we will sign a 100-year concession agreement for the ports of Acajutla and La Unión in the first quarter of 2024, Yilport said in its annual report of 2023.
Yilport delegates visited the maritime terminals in August 2022. At that time, the president of the Autonomous Port Executive Commission (CEPA), Federico Anliker, detailed that the tour included the Port of La Unión to give ita solution to the white elephant.who hasn’t operated at his full potential since his inauguration.
Yilport started in 2004 and in 2016 entered the Latin American market. According to its website, it manages container terminals in Turkey, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, as well as Peru and Ecuador. In addition, it has operations in the port of Quetzal, Guatemala.
Maritime route
The Port of Acajutla, in Sonsonate, is the main maritime platform in El Salvador for the export and import of raw materials and finished products. In the extraportical areas there is also the liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaplantation.
In 2023, ECA delivered aextension of the container yard that increased capacity by 31 %of the terminal, from 21,456 square meters to 91,000, as well as the volume of units from 100,000 to 350,000.
The Union, for its part, has not operated at its maximum capacity since its completion in 2008. This terminal was proposed as a competition to the Panama Canal, but the sedimentation difficult to enter large ships and was basically relegated to fishing boats.
The only major activity in the terminal corresponds to the ferry with Costa Rica, which lasted only four months in operations in 2023.
In Tuesday’s Front-to-Foo Against Front interview, the president of ECA was asked about the possible concession of the Turkish operator, to which the official replied that we are not married with any idea.
“What we are seeing is what suits the country best in terms of productivity, in terms of investment, because here we are not talking about a yucca room (…) we are talking about billions of dollars of investment that did not do in the past and we have to see what is the best viability,” Anliker said.
The head of ECA said that this week he will receive delegates from Eximbank, South Korea, to manage a $350 million credit to create the sea side of the Port of Acajutla.
In the report, Yilport also announces that another memorandum of understanding will be signed with the Salvadoran government in 2023, for a total of 350 megawatts (MW) of solar, wind and geothermal renewable energy.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in Diario El Mundo