Colon Free Zone - Zona Libre Colon - Panama

Zona Libre de Colon / Colon Free Zone is the largest free zone in the Americas and the second largest in the world. Created in 1948, the free zone houses over 2500 wholesalers, receives yearly more than 300,000 buyers from all parts of the World, mainly from countries such as Haiti, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, United States, Ecuador, and others. The Colon Free Zone generates USD $14 billion in imports and reexports each year.

The Colon Free Zone success is due to a combination of factors such as the geographical location of Panama at the crossroads of the world, the Panama Canal, the fact that the US dollar is legal tender, a large banking center on its doorstep, a developed insurance and reinsurance industry, several state-of-the-art container ports and not very onerous business requirements

Key  figures

• Second largest Free Zone in the world
• More than 2500 wholesalers
• 1,064.5 hectares
• 300,000 yearly buyers
• 27,000 employees
• USD $14 billion in imports and reexports each year

What countries are dealing with the Colon Free Zone?

Most Free Zone merchandise is transshipped from Panama to other parts of the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Imports into the Colon Free Zone come mainly from the Far East. The largest individual supplier of the Colon Free Zone in 2004 was Hong Kong (China) followed by Taiwan, United States, Japan, Korea, France, Mexico, Italy, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany. These countries supplied nearly 87 percent of all Colon Free Zone imports in 2004. Colombia is the largest buyer of merchandise, buying nearly 16 percent of all Colon Free Zone exports. Other principal purchasers are Venezuela, Panama (domestic market), Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, the United States, Chile, Cuba, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador. These countries buy approximately 83% of all exports from the Colon Free Zone.

Panama Canal and logistic services

• The Colon Free Zone benefits from its exceptional location close to the Panama Canal.
• Every year over 12,700 cargo vessels cross the Panama Canal. This traffic will increase with the project of extension of the Panama Canal that will allow Post Panamax vessels to cross the Canal.
• With wide warehouses and logistics solutions the companies based in the Free Zone also offer a wide range of logistic and freight services which support the intense commercial activity of the Free Zone.
• New development projects of warehouses and logistics facilities will occur within the next 5 years allowing the trading in the Free Zone to grow efficiently.

Colon Free Zone contacts
Mercatrade.com developed useful search and promotion tools to find buyers or sellers, of goods and services in Latin America and Caribbean free zones with just a few clicks. (View the companies from the Colon Free Zone)

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