Nicaragua advances port privatisation

This transfer of government assets was made possible by the passing of new legislation on May 21, 2013, which affected both ports and airports.

This sparked the interest of a “Dutch port operator”, believed to be APM Terminals, with whom the government has reportedly been in discussions.

It is estimated that the concession process could involve investment of $1.5bn, with the Port of Corinto expected to put out to concession for 25-30 years. Corinto is one of Nicaragua’s most important ports, boosting traffic last year from 1.2m tons to 3m tons.

The next port identified for privatisation is Sandino, which also handles significant amounts of import-export traffic.