Interesting article in today's La Prensa about plans for a dry canal in Costa Rica. Trains would run every forty minutes from a port in Guanacaste to Limon, loaded with containers.
The economics of this are interesting and complex. It's costing $100 /container to transit the Panama Canal, so a (small) ship with 4500 containers pays $450K. Cruise ships pay $132 /bed.
Daily operating costs vary depending on size of ship and number of containers, but a ship this size would cost approximately $68K /day to operate.
There are two proposals vying for a Costa Rican government concession. One is a bit more involved, and includes a means of moving grain.
It's not hard to imagine a model that includes sorting and distribution of the containers to different destinations at Limon. For example, a 14,000 container ship arrives from China but the containers include destinations of Brazil, the US, Europe, the Caribbean.
Remember, the Cubans were going to build something like this, an enormous container distribution point. I believe with Venezuelan money (what Venezuelan money.
Three huge aggravations for the Nicas here:
1. The Costa Ricans will be able to easily find the financing if the canal seco proves viable; their market economy will attract conventional investment money. A big fear in the minds of Nica canal investors has to be,, Nicaragua simply taking the canal at some point, a la Venezuela with much of their industry (now mostly defunct under socialist management). Everybody knows that that's what socialists do. Take stuff.
Another consideration I always had was, how long is it going to take to transit the Nicaragua canal?? It's a one way ditch, and that $68K/day could start adding up fast if someone gets stuck, and ships are sitting on both ends waiting for a transit.
Socialists don't have a great reputation for managing things either. I give you Cuba, where Cubans make $50 /month, of which, $20 is actually spendable. The rest is Cuban National Pesos. Good for getting into museums, but nobody else takes them. Venezuela's PDSA. Largest petroleum reserves in the world, and lacking a buck for a roll of toilet paper. Everybody in this part of the world is living on remittances from the US.
2. Pacific port will be in Guanacaste,,, lots of great possibilities, but Nicaragua still believes that Guanacaste is theirs. As Doña Nanci said, "Lo Siento!"
3. The final blow: Canal will be called TICO
Some decision is supposed to be made on the concession award by July 15 of this year.
This concept is far from new. A US organization had a concession from Nicaragua to develop a dry canal. Nicaragua unilaterally abrogated this concession when Laureano cozied up to Big Wang during a performance of I Pagliacci.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3R25CPb1Y0
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