APM Terminals Moín welcomed the MSC Sara Elena, the largest container ship to ever berth in Costa Rica, measuring 300m long with a capacity of 8,000 TEUs, in November.
The vessel was in port for just under nine hours, including the obligatory first call celebrations. According to a statement of APM Terminals, exports of key Costa Rican exports, such as pineapples and bananas, were loaded onto the Sara Elena which then sailed for Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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It was on 28 February, when Costa Rica welcomed the inauguration of APM Terminals Moín which was expected to enable products to be shipped on transatlantic routes to European and Asian markets without transshipment. The Terminal aimed to move Costa Rica to number 1 for connectivity, out of 139 countries ranked by the World Economic Forum.
The project represents a total investment of USD 1 billion and is built on a 40-hectare artificial island. The terminal has a 650-meter long pier and a container yard with the capacity to hold 26,000 TEUs, including power connection capacity for 3,800 refrigerated containers.
Upon the completion of the project’s final phase, the facility will cover double its current area of 40 hectares, with 5 berths, and be capable of handling vessels of up to 13,000 TEU, the largest size of vessels capable of passing through the Panama Canal locks.
It is added that APM Terminals Moin is consistently breaking its own gross moves per hour (GMPH) record, achieving GMPH of 28 in its first half year of operation.
In May, electrical issues that took place at APM Terminal’s new Moin container terminal in Costa Rica led 12 container ships to be diverted to docks administered by Costa Rica’s port authority JAPDEVA.
The decision was made in order to prevent disrupting the operations, as the terminal faces some problems with one of the transformers.