Puerto Nuevo Coal Terminal
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The Puerto Nuevo Coal Terminal is a coal export port located on the Caribbean coast near Ciénaga, Magdalena department, Colombia.
Location
Background
Puerto Nuevo historically served as the dedicated coal export port for the Prodeco Group, a division of Glencore plc specializing in the exploration, production, transportation and shipping of high-grade thermal and metallurgical coal. Prodeco originally built and utilized Puerto Nuevo exclusively to export coal from its own Calenturitas and La Jagua mines.[1] Until the closure of these mines in 2020, Prodeco was Colombia's third largest thermal coal exporter.[2]
Construction of the US$550 million port began in 2010 and was completed in 2013. Operating under the official name Sociedad Portuaria Puerto Nuevo S.A., the coal terminal began commercial activity in April 2013, with an annual export capacity of approximately 21 million tonnes.[3] (The port's effective capacity subsequently increased to 32 million tonnes, according to Prodeco's website.[4]) Puerto Nuevo was designed to serve markets in Europe, the Americas and Asia.[5] The port's facilities allowed direct loading of coal onto ships via covered conveyor belts[6], in compliance with Decree 3083 of Colombia's environmental protection authority, which took effect on January 1, 2014.[5]
In June 2013 Coal Age magazine reported that Puerto Nuevo's facilities included an unloading station for trains with an 8,000 mt per hour (mtph) capacity, a storage yard with 1.1 million mt capacity, 7 km of covered conveyor belts that can transport 8,000 mtph, supported by a buffer silo with 2,500 mt capacity, and a 1.7 km access pier open to cape-size vessels. The coal exported from Puerto Nuevo was to be mined at Prodeco's Calenturitas and La Jagua open-pit mines in Colombia's Cesar department, then transported to the port via a railway operated by Fenoco, a separate company in which Prodeco held a 40% share.[1]
Cessation of operations at Prodeco's La Jagua and Calenturitas mines
Prodeco officially suspended operations at its Colombian mines in March 2020 and surrendered the mining titles back to the Colombian government in February 2021[7]; Colombia's National Mining Agency (ANM) accepted relinquishment of the titles in September 2021.[7]
Prodeco's cessation of mining operations led to a dramatic dropoff in coal shipments from the Puerto Nuevo terminal, from 16.4 million tonnes in 2019 to less than 453,000 tonnes in 2021.[8] Since 2021, coal shipped from Puerto Nuevo has come from third-party producers in northern and central Colombia.[9]
Coal throughput statistics
Thermal coal exports from Puerto Nuevo totaled 16.622 million tonnes in 2015[10], and 19.53 million tonnes in 2016.[11]
- 2017 16,132,062 tonnes[12]
- 2018 14,543,544 tonnes[13]
- 2019 16,397,423 tonnes[14]
- 2020 7,514,851 tonnes[15]
- 2021 452,623 tonnes[8]
- 2022 3,133,854 tonnes[16]
- 2023 3,733,964 tonnes[17]
- 2024 2,479,889 tonnes[18]
- 2025 2,543,427 tonnes[19]
Change of ownership
In September 2025, Epicurio Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of the Colombian-Panamanian Grupo Key, announced its intention to acquire Puerto Nuevo from Grupo Prodeco.[20] The sale to Epicurio was finalized in January 2026.[21][22]
Project Details
- Operator: Sociedad Portuaria Puerto Nuevo S.A.[4]
- Owner: Epicurio Enterprises, Inc.[21][22]
- Location: Ciénaga, Magdalena department, Colombia[3][4]
- Annual Capacity (Tonnes): 32 million[4]
- Status: Operating[19]
- Start year: 2013[3]
- Type: Exports[4]
- Coal source: 2013-2020: La Jagua and Calenturitas mines[1]; 2021-present: other mines in northern and central Colombia[9]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Prodeco Commissions Puerto Nuevo in Colombia", Coal Age, June 26, 2013.
- ↑ "Prodeco Group", Prodeco website, accessed January 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Indicadores de la Minería en Colombia (p 78)" (PDF). UPME (Unidad de Planeación Minero Energética). 2014.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Puerto Nuevo: Nuestra operación". Grupo Prodeco. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Sociedad Portuaria Puerto Nuevo S.A.", Prodeco website, accessed January 2015.
- ↑ "Glencore's Colombia unit opens 21 million tonne coal port", Reuters, May 29, 2013.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Termination of mining operations". Grupo Prodeco. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2021 (pp 15, 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2022-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Operación Ferroviaria". Grupo Prodeco. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Colombian 2015 thermal coal exports rise 7.6% on year to 80.64 million mt" Platts, Jan 11, 2016
- ↑ "Colombian thermal coal exports rise 9% in 2016 to record 88 mil mt" Platts, Jan 17, 2017
- ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2017 (p 18)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2018-08-31.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2018 (p 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2019-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2019 (p 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2020-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2020 (p 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2021-01-31.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2022 (p 18)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2023-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2023 (p 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2024-02-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia Año 2024 (p 17)" (PDF). Superintendencia de Puertos y Transporte. 2025-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Boletín Estadístico Tráfico Portuario en Colombia - Enero a diciembre de 2025 (p 19)" (PDF). SuperTransporte (Superintendencia de Transporte). 2026-02-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Ante la SIC notifican cambio de propiedad del puerto carbonífero Puerto Nuevo". Portafolio. 2025-10-10. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Pérez-Llorca advises on the sale of stake in Colombia's Puerto Nuevo Coal Port". The Latin American Lawyer. 2026-02-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 22.0 22.1 "The Prodeco Group". Grupo Prodeco. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
