APM Terminals and Colombian-based port and terminal operating company, Compañia de Puertos Asociados S.A. (Compas S.A.) have finalized the incorporation of Cartagena Container Terminal Operator (CCTO), a new joint venture which will manage and operate Compas S.A.’s existing multipurpose facility in Cartagena, Colombia.

APM Terminals will hold a 51% majority share in the operation, which includes annual throughput capacities of 250,000 TEUs and 1.5 million tons of general cargo.

APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer stated:

“We are proud to expand the APM Terminals Global Terminal Network into this important South American market in partnership with such a highly respected business as Compas SA, and we look forward to building upon their achievements in the port of Cartagena.”

CCTO and Compas S.A. will jointly invest over US$200 million in upgrading and expanding the facility to triple the annual throughput capacity, and enable the terminal to handle vessels up to 13,000 TEU capacity which will be able to transit the Panama Canal after the lock-widening project is completed this year.

Cartagena, located at the northern tip of South America on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, is the second-busiest container port in South America, and the fifth-busiest in the Latin American/Caribbean Region, with a throughput of over two million TEUs in 2015, trailing only Balboa and Colón, Panama; Santos, Brazil and Manzanillo, Mexico.

The Colombian economy is the third-largest in South America, after Brazil and Argentina, and has averaged better than a 4% annual growth rate since 2010. The Colombian economy has been projected by the IMF to expand by 2.9% in 2016.