El Salvador building warehouse as part of Acajutla port upgrade

El Salvador authorities have started construction of a new warehouse at Acajutla port, as part of modernization and expansion plans for the terminal originally outlined by President Nayib Bukele in his election campaign.

Federico Anliker, the president of autonomous ports commission CEPA, minister of finance Alejandro Zelaya and customs director Benjamín Mayorga all took part in a ceremony to lay the first stone.

“This project involves building an industrial warehouse on a 9,320m2 area, including 2,567m2 for 18 docking points, an internal area for seized or abandoned vehicles, an area for seized or abandoned cargo, offices for customs formalities, an area for review of containers and split goods, and a general area for the storage of goods,” Anliker said on CEPA's Twitter account. 

The pre-construction stage began weeks ago, with the demolition of existing structures, excavations and compaction of the land. 

The investment in this warehouse will top US$7.5mn, according to the CEPA director. 

“The logistics warehouse that we will build will maximize the fiscal inspection service carried out by the customs department, which will reduce costs and time, and will benefit the private and the public sectors,” Anliker was quoted as saying by newspaper Diario El Salvador.

Figures from the commission show that, from January 1 to April 23, nearly 1.8Mmt of imports and exports were handled by the port. 

PORT EXPANSION

Anliker said last year that the expansion of the port's dock would begin this year with the construction of an additional ship berth with the aim of raising its cargo handling capacity from 350,000 TEUs to 910,000 TEUs per year.

The upgrade of Acajutla is intended to make it one of the most competitive ports in Central America and turn it into a regional cargo hub.

"We are going to take advantage of the great opportunities that El Salvador has for the world to turn the Acajutla port into a logistics hub with great regional competitiveness," Anliker said at the time.