Yesterday the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Panama, accepting two requests, declared the unconstitutionality Law no. 5 of 16 January 1997 which approved the contract with the Panama Ports Company (PPC) of the CK Hutchison Holdings Group of Hong Kong for development, construction, administration and management of port terminals for containers, passengers, bulk and miscellaneous cargo from Panamanian ports of Cristóbal and Balboa. The petitions of unconstitutionality were submitted at the end of an investigation and verification on the Panama Ports Company who would have ascertained the violation of the terms of the concession contract ( of 27 January and 8 April 2025).

Recall that last year, after the return of Donald Trump to the White House and his statements about the will of the new US government administration to resume control of the Panama Canal by ousting Chinese interests in the country, the CK Hutchison group had signed an agreement to sell 90% of the share capital of Hutchison Ports PPC (Panama Ports Company) to a consortium formed by the US BlackRock, the investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners and the Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) of the Mediterranean Shipping Company group ( of 4 March 2025). The agreement had been celebrated by Trump as the victory of his intention to put the Panamanian Canal back under the American control.

Meanwhile, yesterday the Panama Ports Company announced that, of the over 9.9 million TEUs of containerized traffic handled in the 2025 from Panamanian ports, 3,887,296 TEUs were handled by the PPC and highlighted that if its terminals in the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal have an annual traffic capacity of seven million TEUs, currently only 55.5% of this ability.