Americas News
Work on Nicaragua's Panama Canal Alternative to Start as Early as August with Fuel Terminal, Ship Wharf
Hong-Kong based HKND Group Thursday indicated that work is set to begin as early as this August on The Nicaragua Grand Canal, a planned alternative to the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific.
KW Pang, Vice President, HKND Group, told Bloomberg that it would start construction on a fuel terminal and a ship wharf needed to import machinery for the project on the Pacific coast.
Construction of the $50 billion canal will also include various sub projects, among them a free trade zone, holiday resorts, and an international airport.
In the Bloomberg interview Pang said that financing for the 274-kilometer long canal could come from debt and equity sales, as well as an IPO.
"Many businessmen from Latin America, China and Europe have come to talk with us. The project's financing does not depend on the state of the stock market in China. It is an international project. Funding will come from many countries and many investment sectors," Pang was quoted as saying.
So far, plans for the canal suggest it will be 230 to 520 metres wide, and 27.6 metres deep, making it both wider and deeper than the shorter Panama Canal located 300 miles to the south.
The project has, perhaps unsurprisingly, proven to be a controversial one for some, not least of which is that fact that the Nicaraguan legislate was said to have awarded the contract without accepting competing bids.
Others, such as Sverre Svenning, a shipping expert at Fearnley Consultants AS, have questioned if sufficient demand for the waterway exists.
For its part, HKND says that 78 percent of Nicaraguans responding to a survey support the plan, and that after its canal is built, "everybody will have a better life."
In October of 2015 Ship & Bunker reported that a study found the canal project was "fraught" with risks and uncertainties.
