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The Hong Kong -based conglomerate that operates ports near the Panama Canal agreed to sell shares of its units that operate the ports to a consortium that includes Blackrock Inc., after President Donald Trump had the Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane.
In a presentation, CK Hutchison Holding said Tuesday that he would sell all the actions in Hutchison Port Holdings and all the actions in Hutchison Port Group Holdings. The two units have 80% of the Hutchison port group that operates 43 ports in 23 countries.
The consortium, composed of Blackrock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Investment Limited terminal, will acquire 90% interest in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal in Panama, according to the presentation.
In January, the American senator Ted Cruz, republican president of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, raised concerns that China could exploit or block the passage through the channel and that the ports “give China observation lists” to take action. “This situation, I think, publishes acute risks for the national security of the United States,” Cruz said.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, visited Panama in early February and told President José Raúl Mulino that Panama had to reduce Chinese influence on the channel or face possible reprisals from the United States. Mulino rejected the idea that China had some control over channel operations.
Panama leaves China's Belt and Road initiative after Rubio's visit, causing Beijing's conviction.
But although he focused much attention on Trump's threat to resume the control of the channel, his administration trained his sights in the ports of Hutchison, the consortium based in Hong Kong that manages the ports of the ports at any end of the channel.
Hutchison Ports had recently received an extension of 25 years without offer to execute the ports, but an audit that looked that extension was already underway. The observers believed that the audit was a preliminary step towards receiving the contract, but in recent weeks they had started in recent weeks that an American company near the White House was being aligned to take charge.
