# Puerto Cristobal (PACTB)

**UN/LOCODE:** PACTB  
**Country:** Panama  
**Water Body:** Caribbean Sea; North Atlantic Ocean  
**Harbor Size:** Medium  
**Harbor Type:** Coastal (Breakwater)  
**GPS:** 9.3500, -79.9167

Capacity near 2 million TEU, actual first-half 2026 throughput of 409,685 TEU: the 34.9 percent drop at Cristobal (PACTB) measures the cost of an abrupt operator change at the Panama Canal's Caribbean entrance. Panama's Supreme Court declared the 1997 Panama Ports Company (CK Hutchison) concession unconstitutional on 30 January 2026, and the ruling became enforceable when published in the Official Gazette on 23 February 2026. Terminal Investment Limited (TiL), MSC's terminal arm, has run the terminal since then under a temporary contract of up to 18 months, while sister port Balboa went to APM Terminals. The facility offers three berths for Panamax and post-Panamax vessels along roughly 1,333 metres of quay, and handled 1.11 million TEU as recently as 2024. Cristobal works mainly relay and transshipment cargo for the Caribbean, Central America and the Americas rather than Panamanian consumption. Road and the trans-isthmian railway connect it to the adjacent Colón Free Zone — one of the world's largest free-trade areas, where goods sit without Panamanian import duties until they enter the customs territory — and onward to Balboa on the Pacific. An international tender for the long-term concession is due after the transition, a process complicated by Chinese objections to Maersk and MSC taking over. For alternatives in the same harbour, the Manzanillo International Terminal and the Colón Container Terminal both grew in 2026 and offer immediate capacity.

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*Freight Academy — Seaport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/seaports/puerto-cristobal-port-pactb](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/seaports/puerto-cristobal-port-pactb)*

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*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/seaports/puerto-cristobal-port-pactb/llm-summary?lang=en*