Colombia Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez announced January 5 the addition of US$397 million in financing deals supporting the US$627 million “Puerto Antioquia” ocean freight project near Turbo, Antioquia.

Part of the new funds will come via the privately held Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional (FDN) group, which just confirmed a US$103.7 million loan package involving JP Morgan including a loan guarantee from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Another part of the new funding comes from the Inter-American Development Bank Group with US$200 million, plus US$30 million from Colombia’s Bancoldex import-export promotion agency and US$60 million from the Davivienda bank group here, according to FDN.

The JP Morgan loan carries a 16-years payback term with a four-year grace period, according to FDN. “The loan will be amortized in 47 quarterly installments from the expiration of the grace period,” according to FDN, whose shareholders include Grupo Bicentenario, IFC, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and CAF.

According to FDN, “the port is expected to start operating in 2025 and reduce logistics costs by improving competitiveness and allowing the development of small and medium-sized producers, which have been restricted, in part, by limited access to ports, and competition by the quotas offered in the boats that transport agricultural products.”

The new port also will “promote the creation of 11,600 new companies and US$24.4 million per year in tax payments,” according to FDN.

The total estimated capital cost of US$672.4 million includes debt finance (59.6% of the total, or US$393.7 million), with the remaining 40.4% (equivalent to US$280 million) in capital finance to be provided by the project partners.

“When compared with the other alternative ports in the Caribbean for cargo transportation, Puerto Antioquia represents a cost savings of 44% and 41% in distance for Medellín, 37% in costs and 33% in distance from the coffee region, ands 17% in costs and 25% in distance from Bogotá,” according to FDN.

The port will enjoy new highway connections via the under-construction Mar 1, Mar 2 and Toyo Tunnel highway projects in Antioquia, due for completion over the next two-to-four years.

The annual capacity of Puerto Antioquia will enable shipping of 600,000 twenty-foot-container-equivalent units in dry and refrigerated containers, 3 million tons of bulk cargo and 1.15 million tons of general cargo, according to FDN.

The private-sector capital sponsors of the project include global shipping giant CMA Terminals (22% share); Pio S.A.S. (11.1%); Eiffage Infrastructures S.A.S (22%); Termotécnica Coindustrial (5.17%); banana exporter Uniban (15.51%); Agrícola Santamaría (5.69%); Banafrut (4.14%); CI Tropical (6.21%); and Unión Para la Infraestructura (8.21%), the latter of which is backed by Credicorp Capital Asset Management and Sura Asset Management, according to FDN.

Colombia President Ivan Duque on December 4 officially inaugurated the long-awaited “Vias del Nus” highway connecting Medellin northward to Atlantic freight ports.

The new, 157.4-kilometers-long highway includes a four-lane, twin-tube tunnel that breaks through the historically problematic “La Quiebra” mountain, which until now has snagged road transport to and from Medellin and Colombia’s main northern ports.

Connecting to the “Magdalena 2” project at Alto de Dolores (Antioquia) and a brand-new bridge over the Magdalena River, the new, COP$1.2 trillion (US$302 million) “Vias del Nus” corridor slashes about two hours from travel times and avoids a twisting, complicated climb over “La Quiebra” at Cisneros, Antioquia.

The project “directly benefits about 3.3 million inhabitants of Medellín, Bello, Copacabana, Girardota, Barbosa, Donmatías, Santo Domingo, Santa Rosa de Osos, Cisneros, San Roque and Maceo,” while simultaneously improving crucial freight transport, as noted by Colombia’s Transport Ministry.

The project is so monumental that Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Luis Almagro accompanied President Duque at the December 4 dedication ceremony.

“Today Colombia shows that large projects may take 100 years to ponder, but in this government we execute them on time, and we are going to give Antioquia the largest investment in fourth-generation highways, the largest investment in tertiary roads and the largest number of new kilometers” of new and upgraded highways, bridges and tunnels, President Duque bragged.

Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura (ANI) president Manuel Felipe Gutiérrez added that the Vias del Nus project also features 17 new pairs of bridges, notably including the curved, 220-meters-long “El Cariaño” bridge built in successive cantilevers -- an especially challenging engineering feat.

Colombia’s Ministry of Health announced November 11 that as of midnight two days ago (November 9), more than 50 million shots of Covid-19 vaccine have now been applied here nationally.

Of that total, more than 22.3 million people have completed their required two-shot (or in the case of Jannsen, one-shot) regimen, while 27 million have received at least one shot.

Meanwhile, the Ministry added that more than 500,000 children here between the ages of three and 11 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 -- more than 7% of the total of this group of children, since this group started getting shots November 1.

While the Ministry noted that such children are in general less vulnerable to the most dangerous effects of Covid-19 – that is, compared to elderly people and other people with co-morbidities – nevertheless 253 children under 18 years old here have died of Covid-19, while more than 400,000 have been sickened by this virus, according to the Ministry.

Meanwhile, Medellin officially reported November 10 that 3.13 million people here have gotten Covid-19 shots, of which 1.46 million have now completed the two-dose regimen while another 1.64 million have gotten at least one shot.

As for all of Antioquia (including metro Medellin), more than 7.1 million shots against Covid-19 have been administered here, with 2.65 million having now completed their two-shot regimen, according to the Antioquia departmental government.

On more positive fronts, millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines from various manufacturers have arrived or are arriving in Colombia this month, boosting crucial supplies to cities nearly everywhere here.

Among this new flood of supplies: 2.2 million more doses of Biontech/Pfizer vaccines, generously donated by the government of Germany.

As a result, Colombia now has ensured that it has enough vaccines already available here to meet its target of having 70% of its population vaccinated against Covid-19 by year-end 2021, according to the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Ministry began offering reinforcement doses to populations 70-years and older since October, then added the cohort of those 60-to-69 since November 5.

A popular version of third-dose-reinforcement here involves administering AstraZeneca vaccines to those earlier vaccinated with Sinovac vaccine -- resulting in a statistically valid 97% effectiveness against dangerous levels of Covid-19 infection, according to the Ministry.

Colombia President Ivan Duque announced October 11 during a visit to Washington, DC, that the proposed “Puerto Antioquia” ocean freight port near Turbo, Antioquia just won another US$200 million in financing from the Interamerican Development Bank’s “IDB Invest” group.

The project – now estimated to start-up in the second half of 2024 -- has a total estimated cost of US$672 million, of which IDB Invest is putting-up a US$150 million in equity plus “mobilization of US$50 million of funds under administration of IDB Invest, which offers a long-term financing of 17 years not otherwise available in the [private equity] market, and necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of the project,” according to IDB.

The project earlier won a US$110 million term loan from New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (see Medellin Herald July 9, 2020).

The new IDB Invest financing will support “construction, operation and maintenance of Puerto Antioquia, a new multipurpose port facility located in the Gulf of Urabá,” the agency noted.

The project developers already have obtained a 30-year concession contract with Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI).

“Thanks to its geostrategic location and the construction of '4G' [soon-to-open fourth-generation] highways, it will be the port terminal closest to the main production and consumption centers of the country, becoming a key infrastructure for strengthening Colombian foreign trade,” IDB noted.

The project also has lined-up “mezzanine financing from Global Infrastructure Partners and loans of US$193 million from Colombian local banks,” IDB added. Puerto Antioquia also has an environmental license and enjoys Special Permanent Free Zone status.

Among Puerto Colombia’s project sponsors: international shipping company CMA CGM, the Colombian port development company Puertos, Inversiones y Obras (PIO SAS), the European construction company Eiffage and Colombian banana-exporting companies Agrícola Santamaría, Banafrut, C.I. Unibán and C.I. Tropical.

The project features a 16.5-meters-deep ocean draft to a marine platform including 1,340 linear meters of dockage, all connected to a 3.8-kilometers-long viaduct to a 38-hectares shoreside parcel, which will include “logistical and technological facilities necessary for the storage of general cargo, bulk, vehicles and refrigerated and dry containers,” according to the funding agency.

“IDB Invest has promoted the alignment of Puerto Antioquia with the highest international standards in socio-environmental matters, which also means that the project responds to the need to implement sustainable, safer and more efficient transport infrastructures, which contribute to improving global indicators, such as the Sustainable Development Goals,” according to the agency.

Puerto Bahía Colombia de Urabá S.A. is the formal entity holding the concession contract with ANI for the ocean-freight terminal project.

The port initially will move an estimated volume of 7 million tons of cargo per year. “Due to its strategic location in the southeast of Urabá, the Colombian Caribbean coast, it will reduce the distance between the port and the main centers of production and consumption of the region by more than 350 kilometers,” according to the agency.