The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, revealed this Friday that a Japanese group, which he did not fully identify, has expressed its intention to establish a maintenance center for more than five hundred vessels at a port under construction in the western part of the country. During the traditional delivery of a management report at the start of the year before the unicameral Parliament, Mulino stated that this interest is one of the results of an official visit to Japan made last September. “In Puerto Armuelles, where we have 63% progress in the multimodal port, one of the largest Japanese groups in the shipping industry has sent a letter of intent for that port to be a maintenance center for a fleet of more than 500 vessels. Puerto Armuelles is a priority on my agenda,” declared the head of state. Mulino's Administration is developing a new multipurpose port in Puerto Armuelles, on the Pacific coast, with an investment of 21.3 million dollars. The first phase should be completed by mid-2026 to make way for the logistics phase. Japan is the third user of the Panama Canal, while 42% of the Japanese merchant fleet sails under the Panamanian flag, which represents 32% of the 8,800 ships currently registered in Panama, according to official data. The Panamanian Presidency reported last September 10 that the Panama Maritime Authority and two Japanese companies signed an agreement to develop a logistics park in Puerto Armuelles with short and medium-term goals. Without revealing the names of the companies, the Government explained that it is a shipping company with a large fleet of ships flagged in Panama and an important Japanese economic group with a global presence in the maritime sector. The agreement seeks to develop a multipurpose logistics park focused on the management, storage, processing, and distribution of agricultural products, as well as other goods and logistics services, including repackaging, consolidation, and complementary activities, to optimize the supply chain and facilitate trade, according to official information.
