Mexico port tender due by mid-year

By Chris Aspin and Veronica Gomez Sparrowe

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will open a tender by mid-year for a huge new Pacific coast container port that would be connected by rail to the United States, Communications and Transport Minister Luis Tellez said on Wednesday.

Tellez told the Latin America Investment Summit that the terminal, which could cost up to $6 billion, should start operating in four to five years.

The port, planned for Punta Colonet on the Baja California peninsula about 80 miles south of Ensenada near the U.S. border, will be able to handle up to 5 million containers per year and would take cargo shipments coming from Asia and bound for North American markets.

"The tender for this port will be around mid-year," Tellez said.

He said there was a lot of interest from U.S., Mexican, European and Asian companies to build the port.

Los Angeles and Long Beach are the main ports in Southern California, but are straining to handle the explosive growth in trade with Asian nations, led by China's export boom. Mexico sees a cargo port in Punta Colonet as a chance to become a player in that trade route.

The new port is part of an ambitious infrastructure plan by President Felipe Calderon's government that includes building a new airport to serve Caribbean holiday resorts and laying or repairing more than 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles) of highways.

A tender on a concession to build and operate the airport, planned for the tranquil Riviera Maya resort area south of the busy Caribbean beach resort city of Cancun, will open in the second half of 2008, Tellez said.  Continued...