The sale of two ports near the Panama Canal to a global consortium led by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) threatens the canal’s principle of neutrality, the canal’s head, Ricaurte Vasquez, said.
“There is a potential risk of capacity concentration if the deal comes the way it is structured as we understand right now,” Vasquez told the FT in a report published on Tuesday.
“If there is a significant level of concentration on terminal operators belonging to an integrated or a single shipping company, it will be at the expense of Panama’s competitiveness in the market and inconsistent with neutrality.”
MSC is one of the world’s top container shipping groups. MSC and the Panama Canal Authority did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
CK Hutchison confirmed last month that MSC, run by the family of Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte, was the main investor in a group seeking to buy 43 ports, including the two ports in Panama, for $22.8 billion.
The clarification follows weeks of scrutiny and criticism in China over CK Hutchison’s plan to sell the ports to a consortium, which was previously led by US investment firm BlackRock. BlackRock remains part of the group.
The proposed sale has also drawn the attention of US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to reduce Chinese influence around the Panama Canal and termed the deal a “reclaiming” of the waterway after it was first announced.
In April, China’s top market regulator said it was paying close attention to CK Hutchison’s planned sale and that parties to the deal should not try to avoid an antitrust review.
Vasquez added that the canal should use the ports deal as an opportunity to become a terminal operator itself by reactivating a project to build a terminal in the Port of Corozal at the Pacific end of the canal.