Barcadera is the main

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manc ...

for cargo ships in

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

. It is located in Barcadera, district Santa Cruz and was officially opened on 12 April 2016. The seaport is operated by Aruba Stevedoring (ASTEC) Company N.V., a private entity established by nine local shareholders (all N.V.'s). This initiative was part of the effort to upgrade and modernize the port of Aruba to accommodate the increasing containerization of cargo.

History

Plans to create the harbour began in 1994. The harbour at Oranjestad was large enough, however the cargo ships had to share the port with

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s which often caused problems. The first priority was to move the

container terminal A container port, container terminal, or intermodal terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land v ...

. Work began in 2011, and the move was completed in 2015. On 12 April 2016, the Barcadera harbour was officially opened by Prime minister

Mike Eman Michiel Godfried "Mike" Eman (born 1 September 1961) is an Aruba, Aruban politician currently serving as the 5th Prime Minister of Aruba. He previously served as the 3rd Prime Minister from 2009 to 2017 His political career began in 2001, but Em ...

. The existing harbour at Oranjestad needed to be dredged. The dredging started in 2018, and the sand was used to reclaim of land extending the Barcadera terminal.

Free zone

A part of the harbour has been designated a free zone. It is one of two free zones in Aruba. For licensed companies engaging in sustainable projects, there are 0% import duties and other taxes, and a 2% profit tax.

References

Ports and harbours of Aruba Oranjestad, Aruba Free ports {{Port-stub