Panama's government hopes China's COSCO Shipping will reconsider its decision not to use the Balboa port at the entrance of the Panama Canal, the country's minister for canal affairs, Jose Ramon Icaza, said on Friday.
Earlier this week, local newspaper La Prensa published a notice from COSCO to clients saying it suspended operations at Balboa. COSCO did not reply to earlier request for comment about suspending operations.
"The COSCO issue has really taken us a little bit by surprise," Icaza told reporters at an event, noting that COSCO represents four per cent of cargo that passes through Balboa.
"All cargo is important, and certainly COSCO's cargo is important for us, for Panama, and we obviously hope that they will reconsider that decision not to use the port of Balboa."
Balboa is one of the two ports at the centre of a year-long saga involving Washington, Beijing and the Panamanian Government. The move follows a ruling by Panama's Supreme Court in late January that annulled the contract to operate the port held by a unit of Hong Kong's CK Hutchison.
APM Terminals, a unit of Maersk, recently began temporarily operating the port for a period of up to 18 months.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno, Writing by Daina Beth Solomon, Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
