History
The port of Progreso was
founded by Don Juan Miguel Castro in 1872,
and due to its strategic location, just
36 Km away form Merida, is considered a
natural gateway to connect the Yucatán
Peninsula with the rest of the World by
sea.
With the boom of the Sisal
(Henequen) and facing the necessity of exporting
this product, a battery of 3 piers was built,
which for a long time worked efficiently
for the port traffic, which supplied the
peninsula of all products arriving via the
ocean. These wooden docks had an official
depth of 11 feet, so the ships were forced
to anchor at least 3 miles away in the ocean;
facing the necessity for docks with a greater
depth to cover the maritime traffic requirements,
A new dock that would cover the increasing
necessities of the maritime traffic was
requested to the government of president
Lazaro Cardenas, so in 1937 the Danish company
"Christine and Nielsen" was hired
to build the viaduct and wharf at a cost
of 13 million Mexican pesos with a work
duration of over 11 years, a period of time
that spanned the presidential periods of
Lazaro Cardenas, General Manuel Avila Camacho
and Miguel Aleman Valdez.
On the fist days of the
month of June, 1947, the monumental building
was set in service, and a termination a
viaduct the length of 1.8 kilometers and
2 wharf docks of 200 meters each, and an
official depth of 15 feet for both docks,
the first ship to dock at the newly completed
pier was called the Emancipation.
The newly popular pier
was complete in its services and for many
years following the cargo was handled through
the port, assisted by the railroad and road
transportation, however, in face of the
important advances in the area, both commercially
and industrially, the port capacity was
limited to receive only small vessels, that
could carry only up to 3000 tons of product,
making the maritime freight less competitive
each time.
For that reason, in 1985, with the support
of the federal government the amplification
of the port of Progreso began, with the
construction of a viaduct of 4.5 additional
kilometers to the original 2 kms, for a
total of 6.5 kilometers long, and to develop
the current remote terminal with an area
of 43,000 square meters of maneuvering yards
and three docking positions; this terminal
allows vessels with 23 feet of draw to dock,
which means the ability to receive ships
with up to 18,000 tons of product, six times
more than what the intermediate terminal
was able to receive.
Thanks to this great workmanship,
which has made possible the docking of larger
ships, the state of Yucatán has had
an outstanding development in the poultry,
pork and balanced food industries, thus
permitting the import of necessary supplies
at lower costs, thus positioning Yucatán
among the first places nationwide in these
industries, and at the same time it has
allowed an important growth of the maquiladora
(Mexican factory) industry in the state,
that has taken advantage of the strategic
location of the port, that allows them to
reach within 36 hours the most important
ports within the United States and South
America, creating an important work source.
With the passing of the
new Law of Ports in 1993, the Integral Port
Management offices were created, thus allowing
the opening for private investment in the
ports has led to the rapid growth reflected
in the drive of the economy in the Yucatán
peninsula. The remote terminal in ten years
after it began has begun to shows traces
of saturation, not only in the maneuvering
yards and storage areas, but also in the
docking positions, where it is common to
see waiting lines.
As way of example we mention
the total volume of cargo operated in the
port from one million nine hundred forty-seven
thousand tons (1,947,000) in 1995, to three
million two hundred eighteen thousand tons
(3,218,000) in the year 2000, this shows
a 65% increase in volume, containers increased
from 11,000 units in 1995 to 59,000 units
in the year 2000, which shows an increase
of 336%; this explosive growth motivates
intense technical and economical studies
for the need of a new expansion port.
The federal government,
through the Secretary on Communications
and Transport and the General Coordinator
of Ports and the Merchant Marine, began
working in May 1999 on the fourth stage
of the enlargement of the port, without
a doubt one of the most important investments
in the maritime and portuary sector in the
period of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce
de Leon, the main objective of this work
was to increase the depth of the port, from
7.5 meters to 12 meters in the navigation
channel, and to 11.30 meters in the maneuvering
basins, which will allow larger ships to
dock meanwhile lowering the maritime freight
costs; it was a great challenge, because
the bottom of the ocean had to be dredged,
which had a lot of rocks, and for this,
the Mexican-Dutch company DAMEX was hired,
and they had to use, during the dredging,
two of the largest and most powerful dredgers
in the World, the URSA and the ORANGE, producing
four million three hundred thousand cubic
feet of rocky material , a construction
company of marine and portuary infrastructures
along with Mexican technology built close
to 40 hectares of filler for different purposes:
First, the enlargement of the communication
viaduct, from two to four lines, with a
length of 4.5 kilometers; Second, three
hectares for relocating the maritime customs
offices; third, five hectares for the cruise
line terminal, which will get a private
investment of more than 60 million pesos
(6.3 million dollars); fourth, 23 additional
hectares to the original four, for building
a terminal specifically for containers,
and relocate the bulk terminal, enlarging
its capacity of storage from 20,000 to 52,000
tons, and a larger area for the multiple
uses terminal. Likewise, a position will
be destined for installing a hydrocarbons
unloading terminal, built by PEMEX, and
with these works we increase from three
docking positions to nine with the possibility
of building one more in the near future.
These enlargement works
created a great number of jobs, both direct
and indirect, with a termination of construction
in a record time of 19 months, with a total
investment of 1,130 millions of pesos =
119 million dollars, invested by the federal
government.
With the termination of
the channel and the cruise ship dock, along
with the capacity to serve two mega cruise
ships of the fourth generation at one time
and a position for receiving tourist ferry's,
this will reflect in an increase the tourist
activity in the area, and Port Progreso
will be included in the cruise ship routes
that navigate to the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean.
The terminal specialized
in containers, which will be managed by
private companies, will receive an investment
of 150 million pesos = 15.8 million dollars,
in equipment, including the installation
of two Panama type dock cranes for serving
the container carrier ships efficiently,
providing productivity at international
levels.
The oil terminal, with
a programmed investment of 82 million pesos
= 8.6 million dollars, is another achievement
of the enlargement project, for now tank
ships with 40,000 tons of product will be
able to dock, and this will reduce the unload
time of hydrocarbons, creating important
savings in the cost of freight and maneuvering,
making the unload operations safer, avoiding
leaking accidents and environmental damages.
The bulk terminal managed
by Multisur, with a private investment of
600 million pesos = 6.3 million dollars,
will allow the receiving of larger ships,
because previously the port was limited
to receiving bulk carrier ships with just
18 thousand tons paying for the full slip
freight. Now, the same ships will be able
to dock with their full capacity of up to
35 thousand tons of product, and increase
the efficiency of unload from 8 thousand
to 20 thousand tons per day.
The relocation of the new
maritime customs will be provided with the
most modern and sufficient infrastructure,
for speeding up the procedures of foreign
maritime trade and cruise passengers, and
avoiding the obstruction of vehicle traffic.
The enlargement project
of Port Progreso will increase, without
a doubt, the investments and the business
opportunities in the area and it is estimated
that with this development we'll be able
to achieve a mobilization of 12 million
tons per year without the risk of saturation.
Therefore, Yucatan will not only have a
way of up to date and efficient communication,
but also an important tool for its industrial
and economic development thus achieving
the growth and progress expectations of
our country, Mexico.