Cristóbal

The port of Cristobal is the oldest seaports still operating in the Atlantic. Commercially operating for more than 150 years, Cristobal was constructed to receive workers and materials for the construction of the Transisthmian Railroad. Colon, formerly called Aspinwall, was the Atlantic window for passenger steamships carrying people driven by the Gold Rush, from New York to California. Back then, this seaport had only a small number of docks made out of wood and iron. Cristobal was operating 50 years before the port of Balboa was inaugurated.

Cristobal is operated by HUTCHISON PORTS PPC, who has been in charge of the management of this seaport and Balboa at the Pacific side since 1997 after receiving an extendable concession of 25 years granted by the government under Law 5 of January 16, 1997. Since then, HUTCHISON PORTS PPC started the process of transforming its quays and adapting them to the new world trade operations.

Hutchison Ports is world leader in investments, developments and port operations around the world, with a network of 52 ports involving 27 countries of Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, America and Australasia.

The port of Cristobal is located in Limon Bay at the southern east part of Colon City and at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. Its strategic location connects this seaport with the most important maritime routes of the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the most valuable multimodal allies of the Colon Free Zone.

With a handling capacity of over 2 millions TEUs, this port has road access to Colon Free Zone and a railroad interface on-dock that allows easier container movement, with a total of 1,143 connections for refrigerated, 3 container berths, 12 hectares dedicated to container storage, 13 quay cranes and more than 30 RTGs to handle container operations.

Cristobal has an original design that allows this seaport to handle a variety of cargo. Mainly built for general cargo in the past century, Cristobal is now a fast-growing seaport with a large focus on containerized cargo. Its changes include the reorganization of the berthing and storage area, the acquisition of specialized equipment, and the construction of new facilities for storing dry bulk and general cargo.

Cristobal has the capacity to receive and handle:

• Containers
• Dry and liquid bulks
• General cargo
• Special projects cargo.

It offers a container freight station (CFS) with a covered area of 5,440 m² for LCL and other sensitive type of cargo. All government representatives are available on site for any cargo inspection, documentation and customs clearance.

Cristobal is engaged with keeping its integrity and security of the processes in the organization, so it complies with all aspects related to CSI (Container Security Initiative) established by USA and Panama, BASC (Business Alliance for Secure Commerce) program, PGCC (Global Program for Containers Control) of the UNODC (United Nations Office agains Drug and Crime), C-TPAT (Strategic Association of Customs-Industry against Terrorism) and the code PBIB (Code for Vessel Protection and Port Facilities), in order to guarantee the security of its clients.

Cristóbal increased its movements to 1.1 million TEUs in 2024, with 96.8% transshipment. In 2023, it handled 888,306 TEUs with 95.7% transshipment, while in 2022, it moved 913,911 TEUs, with transshipment representing 96.4%.