San Francisco Frontiers - Panama wins canal expansion arbitration against Spanish company

Sacyr sued Panama in 2018, alleging the Central American country violated a free trade agreement with Spain.

"The Republic of Panama won the international investment arbitration claim filed by Sacyr S.A. under the Arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law" and the tribunal rejected all claims submitted by Sacyr, Panamanian officials said in a release.

Sacyr has been ordered to pay $6 million in arbitration costs, officials said.

Panama's president Jose Raul Mulino hailed the decision on X, calling it "a great achievement."

Along with Italy's Impregilo, Belgium's Jan De Nul and Panama's Constructora Urbana, Sacyr was part of the consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal that carried out the Panama Canal's expansion between 2009 and 2016.

The project was initially budgeted for $5.25 billion but overran costs and faced delays due to disputes between Sacyr and canal authorities.

As a result, Sacyr filed various claims but a tribunal in Washington said that if it had not dismissed the claims for lack of merit, it would have concluded they were "inadmissible, as they were based on the contract for the execution of the job and not on the trade agreement between Panama and Spain," the Panamanian goverment said.

Panama faces a similar case filed by Italian company WeBuild, formerly Impregilo, for an undisclosed sum.

The Panama Canal's main users are the United States and China.

O.Anderson--SFF