Sacyr News

The Panama Canal Authority said it won an arbitration ruling on Friday for $265 million to be returned to it from the consortium that built a third set of locks for the key transoceanic waterway.The authority cited a decision from a Miami-based arbitration board it said was issued earlier on Friday.The GUPC consortium, which includes Spain's Sacyr SA and Italy's Impregilo International Infrastructures NV, no longer exists. Neither company could not be reached for comment after hours on Friday.Initiated in 2015, the case centered on disputed cost overruns largely dealing with concrete quality.

The head of the Panama Canal Authority said on Monday a Miami-based arbitration board rejected a demand by Spanish-led GUPC consortium for $192.8 million to cover cost overruns during the building of a third set of locks for the century-old waterway. GUPC or Grupo Unidos por el Canal includes Sacyr SA of Spain, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructura Urbana of Panama. The authority's chief executive, Jorge Quijano, announced the ruling in a post on his Facebook page. "We have been informed that we have won a major arbitration dealing with the expansion of the canal by the GUPC contractor for $192.8 million," Quijano wrote in a post.

Panama opened the long-delayed $5.4 billion expansion of its shipping canal amid cheering crowds on Sunday, despite looming economic uncertainty in the shipping industry and a heated battle over billions in cost overruns. At 7.50 a.m. (1250 GMT), the Chinese container ship "Cosco Shipping Panama" entered the Agua Clara lock on the Atlantic to begin the first crossing of the roughly 50-mile-long (80.45-km-long) waterway and was due to emerge on the Pacific side by 5.00 p.m. (2200 GMT). The expansion, which triples the size of ships that can travel the canal, allows the country to host 98 percent of the world's shipping and is aimed at wresting market share from rival Suez and U.S. land routes made cheaper by low oil prices.

The Panama Canal expansion project is now expected to be finished “mid of 2016” says a report in Reuters quoting the waterway's administrator. "The new set of larger locks for the Panama Canal will be complete by the end of June, after more than a year-long delay and after builders repaired cracks that had formed in the concrete walls," says  Jorge Quijano, who leads the Panama Canal Authority. The consortium building a third, bigger set of locks on one of the world's busiest maritime routes, headed by Italy's Salini Impregilo and Spain's Sacyr , is now in testing, the final step before the project's inauguration. Panama should start to benefit from the expansion in 2017…

The opening of a newly expanded Panama Canal, previously scheduled for April, will be postponed due to cracks detected in the new set of locks that are the centerpiece of the $5.25 billion overhaul, EFE quotes Panama Canal Authority (ACP) head Jorge Quijano as saying. The interoceanic waterway agency was still planning for the inauguration to occur during the second quarter of 2016 and no later than June. Under the new timetable, the GUPC consortium that is carrying out the expansion will begin navigation tests in April, Quijano said in statements to business leaders that the ACP forwarded to EFE. "We moved it to April due to these problems we had," the administrator said.

The consortium in charge of the expansion of the Panama Canal, led by Sacyr reported that the fissures presented in the third set of locks will not delay the opening date scheduled for April 2016. The Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), comprising the Sacyr Spanish and Italian Salini Impregilo, informed  Autoridfad Panama Canal (ACP), the authority that manages the waterway, that is repairing the gaps in the walls of the locks caused by lack of steel reinforcement, and ensure other structures preventively. "Cracks were detected in one of the walls," said a spokeswoman for the Spanish construction group Sacyr, lead member of the Grupo Unidos Por el Canal consortium responsible for the expansion project. The fissures were found on the canal's Pacific Locks, the spokeswoman added.

Though cracks were detected in the concrete walls of one of the locks of the newly expanded Panama Canal last month, the  Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is maintaining an April 2016 start date for the revamped inter-oceanic waterway, reports Fox News. ACP informed that the April 2016 date remains unchanged. It was waiting for the GUPC consortium, led by Spanish construction giant Sacyr Vallehermoso, to deliver it a report on the seepage that also states whether it will result in any delay in completing the expansion. However, the waterway’s deputy administrator Manuel Benitez told Reuters “it is likely,” when asked if there was a risk of delay.

Power management company Eaton has been awarded an additional $5.2-million contract to provide critical installation services for the Panama Canal Expansion Program. Eaton’s contract was awarded by Grupo Unidos por el Canal, SA (GUPC), the contractor responsible for the design and construction of the third set of locks of the expansion program under contract to the Panama Canal Authority. The expansion project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 and operational in early 2016. Eaton has a decades-long history as a provider of power distribution products and solutions to the Panama Canal, including support for electrical system design and construction in 2011.

As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world's biggest ships. Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger "Post-Panamax" ships through the Canal, one of the world's busiest maritime routes. The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy's Salini Impregilo  and Spain's Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.

The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) and the consortium building a third set of locks for the inter-oceanic waterway said in separate statements that they will take a dispute over cement quality to international arbitration. The PCA has asked for an international arbitration panel to review a decision to award US$233 million to the consortium expanding the canal in a dispute over cement quality. The consortium, led by Spain's Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impregilo, and including Belgium's Jan de Nul and Panama's CUSA, said in January it had won US$233 million of the US$463 million it claimed in the dispute. In the latest chapter of an often thorny relationship between the authority…

The consortium working on the extensive Panama Canal expansion has submitted two new claims for cost overruns of almost $740 million, the canal administrator said on Friday. A dispute between the canal and the consortium over cost overruns temporarily halted work on the expansion earlier this year and arguments over the project are now being heard in an arbitration court in Miami. The consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, formed by Spain's Sacyr, Italy's Salini Impregilo, Belgium's Jan de Nul as well as the Panamanian company CUSA, has now presented a total of about $2.3 billion in claims for overruns, said Panama Canal Authority administrator Jorge Quijano. "We're not taking these claims at face value," said Quijano.

On August 1, 2014, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and the consortium Groups Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) signed the variation incorporating to the original contract the agreement reached in March for completion of the Third Set of Locks project. "What remains now is to continue working with the commitment to complete the Expansion which is currently at a 78% progress," said ACP Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. The Expansion Program registers an overall progress of 78%, while the new locks project is currently 73% complete.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and the consortium Groups Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) signed today the variation incorporating to the original contract the agreement reached in March for completion of the Third Set of Locks project. "What remains now is to continue working with the commitment to complete the Expansion which is currently at a 78% progress," said ACP Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. The Expansion Program registers an overall progress of 78%, while the new locks project is currently 73% complete. The consortium GUPC is formed by Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan de Nul Group (Belgium) and Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) (Panama).

A $180 million claim involving the Panama Canal's disputed $1.6 billion cost overrun is headed to arbitration court in Miami next week, canal officials said on Monday. The $180 million claim by the consortium working on the massive canal expansion project is the first of several disputed construction costs that could end up in the hands of the Miami arbitrators. The cost overrun temporarily halted work on the massive expansion project in February, and the Panama Canal Authority now says the project is on track to open in January 2016.

Arbitration to decide who will bear the Panama Canal expansion project's $1.6 billion cost overrun, a dispute that temporarily halted work earlier this year, will begin in closed-door sessions in Miami later this month, according to lawyers arguing the matter. On July 21 "both sides will submit their terms and draft procedural orders for how things will work," said Carolyn Lamm, an attorney with White & Case representing the Spanish-led construction consortium. Labor and cost disputes have plagued the effort to expand the 100-year-old canal…

Construction workers in Panama ended a nationwide strike on Thursday, allowing the expansion of its famous canal to resume after a delay of more than two weeks. "Work has partially resumed today ... it is estimated staff as a whole will gradually return in the coming days," Grupo Unidos por el Canal, the consortium expanding the waterway, said in a statement. The consortium, led by Spain's Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impreglio, declined to say whether the December 2015 target date for its completion would be pushed back.

The agreement between the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and Grupo Unidos por el Canal. S.A. (GUPC) took effect Thursday, March 20 after signature by all involved parties. As announced by the ACP on February 27, the agreement falls within the terms of the contract for the design and construction of the third set of locks and does not include any payment for claims. GUPC's claims must be processed through the mechanisms within the contract. The contractor finishes the works in December 2015. The contractor will deliver in Panama the 12 lock gates currently in Italy by February 2015.

The Panama Canal Authority expects to formally sign a deal next week with a Spanish-led consortium to finish work on expansion of the waterway after a dispute over cost overruns held up completion, an official said on Friday. "We expect that by Thursday we should be signing said document," Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano told reporters a day after announcing a deal with the GUPC consortium, which is led by Spanish builder Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impregilo. The deal, which was outlined on Thursday…

The Spanish building company, Sacyr, leading the expansion project on the Panama Canal has denied that work at the waterway has been halted despite word to the contrary by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) reports BBC News. The Panama Canal Authority and the building companies involved are engaged in a dispute over who should foot $1.6bn (£1bn) in extra costs. Citing remarks by president of Sacyr, Manuel Manrique, BBC News report that no date had been set for construction work to stop.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) state that it has demanded that GUPC, the lead consortium in charge of the construction of the third set of locks, resume full work on the project as required by the contract. GUPC is formed by the companies Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan de Nul Group (Belgium) and Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) (Panama). After two weeks of negotiations, which saw production levels drop to 25%, ACP say that almost all activity has ceased.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) reports that despite efforts to agree with Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC) to resume work on the new locks project, positions between the parties remain apart. According to ACP a telephone confernce was held with CEOs of the contracting companies comprising GUPC (Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan de Nul Group (Belgium) and Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) (Panama) to review main points, including delivery times for the gates and how the remainder of the project is to be completed…

The new locks contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC) accepted Panama Canal Authority’s (ACP) repeated request and agreed to restart on Thursday, February 20 the construction of the Third Set of Locks project. GUPC is formed by companies Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan de Nul Group (Belgium) and Constructora Urbana, S.A. (CUSA) (Panama). As soon as works are resumed, ACP will pay GUPC $36.8 million for December invoices to ensure that GUPC cancels pending payments and obligations to suppliers.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said that Grupo Unidos por el Canal. S.A. (GUPC) has resumed work on the new locks project during the afternoon of Thursday, February 20. “Works have restarted this afternoon,” said Panama Canal Administrator Jorge L. Quijano. Since works have resumed, ACP will proceed to pay tomorrow GUPC the $36.8 million due for December invoices. This preliminary agreement to resume works does not imply a negotiation on the alleged cost overruns claimed by the contractor. ACP reiterates that these claims must be process through the mechanisms within the contract.