Puerto Bolivar (Machala, Ecuador)

Puerto Bolivar is a South American port on the Pacific Ocean, and part of Machala municipality in Ecuador's El Oro province. The seaport is one of the world's largest cargo ports for exporting bananas. Most of the shipments are for Europe. Over 80% of the country's banana export is shipped through Puerto Bolivar.

The seaport is named after Simon Bolívar (aka El Libertador, 1783-1830) - Venezuelan aristocrat and political leader who played a leading role for the establishment of the independent stare Gran Colombia (1819-1831), Gran Colombia included the Latin American countries Panama, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

Being Ecuador's only deepwater cargo port, Puerto Bolivar is managed by YILPORT Holding. Port's modernization and expansion project (2019-2020) included the installation of 6x new STS gantry cranes (ship-to-shore) plus 18x new E-RTG cranes (electrified, rubber-tired). The equipment serves large container ships (capacities measured in TEU-containers) and was delivered by the Japanese manufacturer MES (Mitsui E&S Machinery Co Ltd). The first two STS cranes are 62 m, with capacity 22 rows and serve 14K TEU ships. The other four STS cranes are 67 m, with capacity 24 rows and serve world's largest boxships (up to 22K TEUs). The E-RTG cranes handle terminal's on-site operations.

In May 2017, the port received 2x new MHC (mobile harbor cranes). In late-May 2018 was completed port's dredging and now the terminal has max draft 14,5 m (48 ft). In December 2019 were delivered two more NHCs (model Gottwald HMK 8410) with 58-m working radius, 100-ton safe load, 60-m boom length and capacity to serve boxships with max width 19 rows. In 2019 were also completed dredging works that increased the shipping channel's depth to 16,5 m (54 ft).