Private sector to build deepwater port in Berbice

Last Updated on Saturday, 12 April 2025, 21:16 by Writer

Guyana is building a US$285 million deepwater port in the eastern county of Berbice potentially to move large amounts of exports from northern Brazil to destinations through the Atlantic and mainly facilitate larger import volumes for Guyana, a director of a major shipping company said Saturday.

“Certainly, that is something we would like the government to participate in in terms of putting us somewhere that could connect to the Brazil road, north, so that we could also service that,” Director of Cranes Guyana Inc, Philip Fernandes said. A section of a road from Linden to Guyana’s border with Brazil is being constructed with funding from the United Kingdom.

The movement of Brazilian products through Guyana by road or rail to Atlantic seaports in Guyana has long been regarded as cheaper rather than going around the Pacific.

Mr. Fernandes confirmed President Irfaan Ali’s announcement earlier Saturday, and added that his company has been in discussions with local commercial banks as well as the United Kingdom and the Inter-American Development Bank for financing.

Mr Fernandes said the deepwater port would be built in phases on 80 to 404 hectares of land and would be primarily geared for the large volume of imports for Guyana. “We’ve seen the need to develop a national port to handle what is being projected for the country,” he said.

He said the deepwater port woud have a depth of 9 to 10 meters and would be able to accommodate 30,000 to 50,000 tonne vessels compared to port Georgetown whose depth is 5.7 to 8 meters and would allow ships up 20,000 tonnes.

The construction of the deepwater port is expected to tie in with government’s plans to build new highways and a new four-lane high-span 1.57 kilometre bridge across the Berbice River to shuttle cargo to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown.