Port Panama City buys land for new terminal

Port Panama City
Port Panama City

The Gulf Coast seaport in Panama City plans to develop a forest products terminal on 41 newly acquired acres of land.

Port Panama City paid $13.6 million for the land, or $331,707 per acre, with financing from the Florida Department of Transportation State Infrastructure Bank. The port also acquired an option to buy another 27 acres for $6 million.

The land would be the development site of a forest products terminal with a 250,000-square-foot warehouse for such products as linerboard and wood pulp and a rail yard with capacity for 48 cars, Wayne Stubbs, executive director of the port, told Global Trade Magazine.

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The seller of the land, WestRock Co., plans to keep operating a corrugated packaging mill on an adjacent parcel.

“This acquisition and terminal project position our port to handle sustained growth for many years to come,” Stubbs told the magazine. He said exports of wood pellets and paper helped the port move record cargo last year totaling more than 2 million tons.

Among other planned projects at the port is a plan to deepen its channel to 38 feet from 32 feet, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved. [Global Trade Magazine] — Mike Seemuth