Seatrade-Maritime: What are Panama’s future plans for Balboa and Cristobal ports?

Published by Seatrade-Maritime

When Panama’ s Supreme Court of Justice declared on 29 January 2026 that the contract held by CK Hutchison subsidiary Panama Ports for the ports of Balboa and Cristobal was unconstitutional, the government enforced the measure less than a month later on 23 February taking over the two terminals.

Since then, Balboa and Cristobal are operating under temporary concessions for up to 18 months: APM Terminals Panama operates Balboa and TIL Panama oversees Cristobal. A permanent arrangement would have to be put out to tender, the government said at the time. And President Jose Raul Mulino announced that his advisor and former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) Alberto Aleman Zubieta would coordinate the 18 months-transition.

But with time, the question of ‘What will Panama do with Balboa and Cristobal?’ has not been answered though it has generated plenty of debate regarding the issue.

The future of Panama’s maritime, logistics and port sector, was the central theme of the 2026 maritime, logistics and port forum, organised recently by the newspaper La Prensa.

Keynote speaker, Alberto Aleman Zubieta, put forward an integrated vision for port terminals on both oceans, proposing integrating the entire port system

“For me, there is no such thing as different port terminals. Panama is a port with terminals on two oceans, and that is a position no one else in the world holds,” Aleman Zubieta said.

Although Aleman Zubieta did not reveal what the final model for Balboa and Cristobal would be, he made it clear that the discussion should not be limited to choosing operators.

Governance is key

In his view, the country needs to review the governance of the entire system, the necessary investments, land and rail connectivity, and the way in which the terminals interact with one another. “Panama is a port with terminals on different oceans,” he emphasised several times before an audience of port and logistics experts, maritime sector companies and local business leaders.

The current situation represents a structural change because the country once again has the capacity to make decisions regarding strategic assets within its logistics platform.

“The [National Maritime] strategy forms the basis of what we want to achieve. But what we need to focus on is how we implement these plans,” he said. Priority must be to cut red tape, improve connections between terminals and ensure the system operates more efficiently.

Panama Port system moves nearly 10 million teu, however, he cautioned that volume alone does not guarantee competitiveness. “You cannot rest on your laurels,” he said, pointing out that shortcomings persist and that the shipping industry is becoming increasingly concentrated.

‘We need to move faster’

The problem, according to Rene Gomez, president of the Panama Chamber of Shipping, is not just how much the country can handle, but how much value it can generate and retain from that activity. The difficulty lies in the day-to-day operation of the system, with platforms that do not communicate with one another, duplicated information, sequential processes, multiple authorities, and administrative procedures and controls that ultimately lead to delays and friction. Moving a container can take more than two hours.

Over the past decade, cargo movements in Panamanian ports have risen from around 6 million teu to 10 million teu, a growth of nearly 60%. But how much of that cargo translates into new businesses, services, wages, jobs and economic activity that remains within the country, asked Gomez. This is where one of the main problems lies: the fragmentation of the system.

An average logistics operation can take around 127 minutes: Around 80 minutes are spent on waiting, paperwork and procedures before and around the checkpoint; around 35 minutes on operations within the terminal; and around 15 minutes on subsequent procedures. By comparison, a container is moved in 30 minutes in Callao, 40 minutes in Cartagena and 50 minutes in Lazaro Cárdenas.

Processes are sequential and systems do not communicate with one another. “Digitising a single institution is not the same as digitising a logistics chain,” he argued.

But the competitive landscape is also changing. Gomez warned that Panama is not merely competing with other ports. “Panama is not competing against new docks. Panama is competing against new logistics models.”