China's financial backing keeps Cuban port's expansion on track

The expansion and renovation of the port of Santiago de Cuba, in Cuba's second largest city, is on track thanks to a 100-million-U.S.-dollar line of credit from the Chinese government.

Construction will be underway in the second half of 2016, following preparatory work that began in 2015, said Juan Carlos Gonzalez, an official at the Cuban Transport Ministry, who was quoted by local TV earlier this week.

The expansion work, which will be conducted by China Communications Construction Company Ltd., included the building of a new 230-meter-long pier where high-tech cranes will be able to speed up cargo services, as well as railways and logistic centers that help connect the port with the rest of the country, according to the Chinese company and the Cuban government.

Leonardo Naranjo, head of port services, said the bay of Santiago de Cuba will be dredged to a depth of 11 meters to accommodate larger ships of up to 55,000 tons. The port's current maximum capacity is for 25,000-ton ships.

The port of Santiago de Cuba is home to numerous industries vital to the Cuban economy, including a cement factory, an oil refinery, two shipyards, wheat mills, and a refrigeration plant for the fishing industry, and is also a railroad hub.

The new multi-purpose terminal will make it faster, easier and more cost effective for Cuba's eastern provinces to export and import goods, while generating jobs, said Naranjo.

The terminal's location in southeastern Cuba makes it ideal for trading with a range of global maritime routes, as evident by the hundreds of ships that ply its Caribbean waters each day on their way to or from the Panama Canal and other key Central and South American ports.

Santiago de Cuba, located 900 km east of Havana, is expected to be home of Cuba's second largest deep-water port and economic development zone, after the Port of Mariel, 45 km west of the capital Havana. Endi