Implementation of a Yard for a Container Terminal in the Commercial Port of Esmeraldas

The Commercial Port of Esmeraldas has increased the traffic of containers with goods of the northern region of Ecuador but lacks infrastructure and specialized equipment to handle containers. To improve this service, it is proposed to determine the feasibility of the courtyard’s space distribution for a terminal of containers to be located on the back side of the main breakwater of the port, which is 400 m in length. The methodology used consists in optimizing the sizing of the courtyard with TEU cells for containers, using different port equipment systems and determining the economic impact generated by each system, based on the forecast of annual container transiting in the logistics corridors within and outside the area of influence of the port. It was determined that the system of playground gantry crane equipment is the most suitable, allowing handling 400,000 TEUs annually, in an area of 18.50 ha, of which 11.50 ha are exclusive for stacking and equipment movement with the lowest cost of movement per TEU. With the current port rates, it is feasible to finance the construction of the container terminal and the acquisition of the port equipment, whose value is USD$87,320,000. The optimal configuration and arrangement of the terminal is for 3312 TEU cells, demarcated for the stacking direction parallel to the dock. The analysis tool of risk priority for decision making was applied, verifying that a gantry crane equipment system presents less risk.