New Port of Guayaquil Scales • 0 5 10 15 20

.~·' ''ta :, ft '• ;· . WORLD ~ '·' INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR • RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON 25, D. C. TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 Public Disclosure Authorized PRESS REIEASE NO. 559 SUBJECT: ~?13 million for new port in Ecuador October 9, 1958 The World Bank today m.ade a loan of the equivalent of ~,~13 million for the construction of a new port at Chayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and main port. The new port i-.rill enable bigger ships to reach Guayaquil, cut down turnaround time, arid reduce the need for lighterage. This ·will lead to Public Disclosure Authorized substantial sav:L~s, and will allow a growing volume of trade to be handled without congestion. The NatiQnal Banlc of Washington, D.c., is par~,icipating in the loan to } ~ the extent of $100,000. This represents $50,000 of each of the first two maturities, which fall due on February land August 1, 1963. Today's loan raised to the equivalent of $45.6 million the net total Public Disclosure Authorized lent by the Bank in Ecuador. Earlier lending has been made up of ~22 million for highway construction and maintenance, $10 million for the expansion of power supplies in Quito and $6oo,ooo for the Ecuadorian railways. The Port of Guayaquil is-located at the point where the D8iule and Babahoyo Rivers meet, S5 miles from the sea, to fonn the Guayas-River. A ferry across the Guayas River con..11.ects the port with Duran, terminal of the railway thatw:mds up through the Andes to Quito, the capital, and other cities of the te~rate Sierra. Goods carried by this railway formerly acco'lUlted for· Public Disclosure Authorized most of the t:raffic to and from the port. But in recent years the remarkable rise in Ecuador's banana exports - once negligible but now largest in the • world -- has led to an increase of traffic on the Daule-Babahoyo waterway - 2 - system, and on a network of highways built in the Guayas Province with the help of an earlier Bank loan. The products of Guayaquil's iJnmediate hinterland are therefore now playing a much larger part in the trade of the port, and • this trend is expected to continue. A considerable amount of coastal shipping also· calls at the port. Guayaquil handles about ,'Cf/, of Ecuador's import volume and 6(1/, of its exports. In line ~~th the recent economic growth, the volume of exports passing through the port has risen by 7(J'J, since 1953. The main exports are bana..'1.a.s, coffee, cacao, sugar, rice, balsa and fish. Imports consist chiefly of iron and steel, cars and trucks, ma.chinery and wheat. The present port is accessible, even at high tide, only to vessels drawing no more than 23-1/2 fee-t. Larger vessels must unload into lighters off the island of. Puna, 35 miles downstream. Because or the lack of deep water wharves, most of the ships which reach Guayaquil must be loaded and unloaded in midstream by lighters. The prohibitive co st of dredgi..'11.g the Guayas River • to a greater depth pre,rents the improvement of 'the present port. A new port is therefore to be built w·~:th the help or the Bank's loan near the head of the Estero Salado, an arm of the Gulf of Guayaquil extending to within six miles of the present port. A moderate amount 0£ dredglng will suffice to cut and maintain a chann.el through the Estero Salado with a min:iJntun depth of 28 feet, and.to maintain a depth of 35 feet at the new wharves. A barge canal about a mile long will connect the Estero Salado with the Guayas River. A four-lane hi~hway, already under construction, will link the new port with the city. The project includes the construction of a concrete wharf 3,000 feet long and cap~ble of ·accommodating five ships at a time. The area behind the new wharf, a·b present swampy and unuseable, will be reclaimed., and transit • ~• - 3 sheds and other buildings will be erected. Some car go handling equipment will • be transferred from the old to the new port, but additional equipment necessar:, for efficient operation will be bought with Bank funds. The total cost of the project is the equivalent of '1~19.l million, of which ~;;13 million will be in foreign currency and will be covered by the Bank's loan. It is estimated, on the basis of present traffic alone, that the completion or the new port will reduce handling charges by the equivalent of more than $500,000 annually. The reduction in turnaround time will result in a further saving equivalent to about t,1.5 million annually. This will help both to stimulate Ecuador I s export tz·ade and to reduce the cost of imports. Today's loan was made to the Guayaquil Port Authority, an autonomous agency created in April this year to operate the existing port and to construct and operate the ne ,' one. The Authority will retain consul ting engineers to • .plan and supervise the project, and will award contracts on the basis of international bidding. The ma;tn construction contract is expected to be awarded in the summer of 1959, and the new port should be ready for use in 1962. The term of the loan is 25 years, and it bears interest, including the 1% commission that is allocated to the Bank's Special Reserve, at 5-3/4,%. Amortization will begin on February 1, 1963. The loan is guar~"'lteed by the Government of Ecuador. After having been approved by the Bank's Executive Directors, the loan documents were signed by Mr. Carlos Morales-Chacon, Charge d'Affaires ad interim, on behalf of the Government of Ecuador, by Mr. Juan X. Marcos, Chairman of the Board, on behalf of the Guayaquil Port Authority, and by Mr. Davidson Sommers, Vice President, on behalf of the World Bank • • ECUADOR NEW PORT OF GUAYAQUIL SCALES • 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 KM Eb=::===:~I===t:::I =:::::::::Jlt:::=::::::::!lt=:::====31 t N P U N A ISLAND • .

Load more