Kingston Port Modernization Project Nearing Completion!

  • December 30, 2019
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The US$452-million port modernisation project is moving towards completion in Kingston, and it is already remaking Jamaica’s major port.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), based in Washington DC, is providing two loans, amounting to US $215 million, while China Infrastructure Fund has given a loan commitment of US$50 million to Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) for the project to modernise the port of Kingston.  KFTL operates Kingston Container Terminal (KCT) under a 30-year lease concession to finance, expand, operate and maintain the port, which is one of the largest container and trans-shipment ports in the Caribbean.

The project is being executed in three phases of which Phase 1 is completed while Phase 2, which is almost complete, has already transformed the port of Kingston through a number of land and offshore developments. Phase 3 is about to begin.

Phase 1 consists of deepening the channel, turning circle and quays to allow access by 14.2 m draft vessels; and within six years, capacity optimisation from 2.8 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) to 3.2 million TEU, while Phase 2 is increasing the draft to allow access by 15.5 m draft vessels.  TEU is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals. Phase 3 will see the construction of a new berth in order to increase KCT’s capacity to 4.5 million TEU.