{"id":571913,"date":"2026-04-08T14:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571913\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:22:10","slug":"hong-kong-firm-files-arbitration-against-maersk-over-panama-canal-port-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571913\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong firm files arbitration against Maersk over Panama Canal port operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate started arbitration proceedings against Danish logistics and port group Maersk, accusing the company of aligning with Panama in a scheme to take over its port operations<\/a> on the Central American country\u2019s critical canal.<\/p>\n

The Panama Ports Company, a unit of Hong Kong\u2019s CK Hutchison Holdings, said in a statement dated Tuesday that Maersk A\/S had undermined a contract over the Hong Kong company\u2019s operations of ports at either end of the Panama Canal in order to pave the way for a new operator affiliated with Maersk to take over the Balboa terminal. <\/p>\n

The company said the arbitration will be held in London, but didn\u2019t explain what remedy it was seeking. Company arbitration is a dispute resolution process in which a neutral third party decides corporate conflicts.<\/p>\n

In February, Panama\u2019s government seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports after the country\u2019s Supreme Court declared<\/a> earlier that a concession allowing the Panama Ports Company to run the ports was unconstitutional. The ruling drew backlash from China.<\/p>\n

The Panamanian government later allowed subsidiaries of Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Company to take over operations at the two ports. <\/p>\n

Panama Ports Company started arbitration<\/a> proceedings against Panama in February. In late March, it expanded its claims, saying damages have escalated beyond $2 billion<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It said on Tuesday that its claim against Maersk is separate from its ongoing steps to hold Panama accountable for what it called \u201canti-contract and anti-investor conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maersk said it does not believe it is liable for the claims and will address them \u201cin the appropriate forum,\u201d without elaborating. <\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from Panama\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The legal actions could further complicate CK Hutchison\u2019s initial plan<\/a> to sell the bulk of its dozens of global ports, including the two Panama ports, to a consortium that involved U.S. investment firm BlackRock in a $23 billion deal. <\/p>\n

The sale plan, first announced in March 2025, pleased U.S. President Donald Trump, who has alleged Chinese interference<\/a> with the critical shipping lane\u2019s operations. But the planned sale apparently angered Beijing, and China\u2019s antitrust regulator last year said it would initiate a review of the deal. <\/p>\n

The parties involved in the deal have since been looking for ways to move forward with the sale, including considering plans to add a Chinese investor<\/a> to the consortium. <\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Alma Sol\u00eds in Panama City contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate started arbitration proceedings against Danish logistics and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,14271,2302,12,793,5425,3140,56529,56531,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-571913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-hong-kong","14":"tag-latin-america","15":"tag-panama","16":"tag-panama-city","17":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}