Caucedo Terminal

active

CSX World Terminals signed an agreement with Caucedo Development Corporation to build, own, and operate the merchant terminal facility in the Caucedo peninsula of the Dominican Republic. Caucedo Investments Inc was created to operate the Port of Caucedo (“Caucedo”) under a ten year concession automatically renewable for four consecutive ten year periods. Caucedo, the only deep water dedicated container terminal in the island of Hispaniola was located on the Caucedo Peninsula of the Dominican Republic, approximately 30 kilometers from the capital city of Santo Domingo The estimated US$200 million project was designed to relieve a similar facility, also run by CSX World Terminals in Dominican Republic's Rio Haina. The Caucedo port was to relieve congestion at the Rio Haina facility and the new port's 15 meter deep-water harbor enabled larger vessels to enter the harbor. The primary sponsors were CSX World Terminals, a fully-owned subsidiary of United States-based CSX Corporation, and Caucedo Development Corporation (CDC). CSX World Terminals was responsible for the port's development, marketing, and management. CDC represented three local partners - Jaak Rannik of Agencias Navieras B&R, industrial developer Samuel Conde, and chairman of the Itabo Industrial Park Manuel Enrique Tavares. Financial closure was obtained by securing an IFC loan and financing from a consortium of lenders led by Scotiabank Group. Scotiabank directly funded US$150 million in a four-tranche loan to Caucedo Investments. The tranches comprised: tranche 1 (US$80 million on 8-year loan), tranche 2 (US$70 million, 12-year loan), tranche 3 (US$15 million, 12-year loan), and tranche 4 (US$30 million, 12-year loan). The greenfield port was located within the Caucedo Free Trade Zone or Zona Franca Multimodal, an expected logistics hub for the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean. The free trade zone was designed for warehousing, distribution, and logistics. The port included 1.1 kilometers (0.68 miles) of sea front and was expected to handle high volumes of containers. Phase one construction, starting in May 2002 and estimated to conclude in first quarter 2004, had a berth with quay length of 600 meters (656 yards) and was dredged to 14 meters (46 feet). The container terminal also included five gantry cranes. The gantry cranes, supplied by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Ltd., were designed to handle throughput of one million TEUs per year. The port was estimated to store more than 18,000 TEUs. The terminal commenced operations on December 4, 2003. In February 2005, Dubai Ports International (DPI) acquired CSX World Terminals for approximately US$1.15 billion. With this transaction, DPI gained control of Caucedo Terminal. In 2010, Caucedo’s Phase II expansion project commenced and included construction of a new 300m quay / Breakwater Berth on the inside face of the Caucedo terminal’s breakwater, the acquisition of 2 new mobile harbor cranes for the feeder berth, a 6th quay crane for the main quay and supporting equipment as well as the development of staging yard space on the existing breakwater reclamation. Caucedo’s Phase II expansion project was expected to be completed in the first semester of 2012. The expansion was to incremental capacity of 275,000 marine lifts. The total project cost was estimated at $69 million. IFC approved an A Loan of $17.5 million in December 2010. http://www.caucedo.com/