February 9, 2010
A consortium led by Spanish firm Sacyr and Italy’s Impregilo submitted the lowest bid on a contract for the largest portion of the Panama Canal’s $5.25 billion expansion project, the Panama Canal Authority announced Wednesday.
The consortium’s $3.12 billion bid came in $360 million less than the authority’s $3.48 billion target price — also announced Wednesday — to build a third set of canal locks.
The other two bidders were a consortium of Bechtel and Japanese firms Taisei and Mitsubishi, which bid $4.19 billion; and a consortium of Spanish giants ACS, FCC, Acciona and Mexican firm ICA, which bid $5.98 billion.
When completed in 2014, the project will allow 12,600-TEU vessels –– nearly three times the size that can fit through existing locks –– to steam through the canal in all-water trans-Pacific services to all three U.S. coasts.
The bids were graded by a team of analysts based on price and technical design specifications. The Sacyr-Impregilo consortium scored highest on the technical aspects, as well.
A price verification board composed of canal authority members will now verify that the bids comply with the authority’s requirements before announcing a winner in the next few days.
Contact Chris Brooks at cbrooks@joc.com@joc.com.
Print
COMMENTS