The Cartagena Container Terminal is the City of Cartagena's principal container management port. It is part of the larger

Port of Cartagena The port of Cartagena ( es, Puerto de Cartagena) is the port located in Cartagena, Spain. It is the fourth nationwide port in freight traffic behind Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona. It occupies the eighth place in relation to the number of crui ...

. The port authority (''Cartagena Container Port Operator'') is jointly operated by the Colombian Port Society of Cartagena (Compas S.A.; es, Compañia de Puertos Asociados) and the Dutch

APM Terminals APM Terminals is a port operating company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. A unit of Danish shipping company Maersk's Transport and Logistics division, it manages terminals and provides integrated cargo and inland services. It opera ...

, who controls 51% of the terminal. It is the second busiest port in Colombia, behind the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

-side port of Buenaventura, and the third busiest port in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It can host vessels with a maximum draft of 16.5m. The terminal has a throughput capacity of 4.5 million TEU's. It is located on the historic sites of the harbours of Cartagena, Spanish colonial-era ports. The port is strategically well placed to capture sea traffic through the Panama Canal's transoceanic shipping lanes that connect the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and Pacific Ocean's sea traffic and other traffic around the Caribbean Sea. However, the wider infrastructure of its location is insufficient, as compared to other international ports, such as the Port of Shanghai or the

Port of Houston The Port of Houston is one of the world's largest ports and serves the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas. The port is a 50-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. ...

, lacking multimodal transport; for instance, the lack of railway transport around Colombia, subsequent to the collapse of the national railway company in the late 20th century. Although, investment in railways and multimodal transport has increased since 2010, with British investment in the railways around central a northern Colombia, and Chinese interest in railways to connect Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean ports in Colombia, investment has increased since the

Colombian peace process The Colombian peace process is the peace process between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC–EP) to bring an end to the Colombian conflict, which eventually led to t ...

increased stability and security for businesses.

References

Container terminals Ports and harbours of Colombia Cartagena, Colombia {{port-stub