Port of Manzanillo to Dredge Navigation Channels

Mexican state-owned port administrator Administración Portuaria Integral de Manzanillo S.A, also known as (API Manzanillo), said in late April it plans to “immediately” dredge the facility’s access and secondary channels to improve navigability at the port. Captain Héctor Mora Gómez, the port administrator’s general director, said dredging must bring the port’s access channel to a 17-meter depth (55.7 feet). The depth was based on conversations with vessel operators, as well as the port administration’s own calculations and insights from its engineering team. The API Manzanillo didn’t disclose a specific timeline for dredging works to begin but said those would include two separate phases: maintenance dredging and “construction dredging” in very specific sections of the port’s access and secondary channels. “The Port of Manzanillo currently demands navigability for vessels between 300 and 367 meters (984 and 1,204 feet) of length and 48 and 52 meters (157 and 171 feet) of width,” API Manzanillo said in late April. While the Mexican port can still handle vessels that large, the dredging works were labeled as “preventive” and aim to make the port’s navigation and access channels deeper and able to handle higher capacity. The Port of Manzanillo is one of Mexico’s largest ports, and a key gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean.