Haina

The Port of Haina is located on the bank of the river of the same name, on the extreme west side of the metropolitan area, adjacent to the main industrial zones. Its construction began in 1951, it was inaugurated in 1953 and later rebuilt by the Dominican State through a loan from the IDB in the 1980s. Its port operations began mainly for the export of sugar and as a naval shipyard.

 

This port has 16 docks, 10 located on the eastern bank and 6 on the western bank; the maximum depth is 11 m.

 

The Port of Haina is the busiest in the country in all types of traffic, except passenger ship operations. In its beginnings, only the Port of Haina Occidental existed, while on the eastern fringe there were the naval shipyards of the Navy built during the Trujillo regime, in 1955, where large-draft ships were manufactured, such as those of the disappeared Dominican merchant fleet.

 

Port activity on the eastern bank arose thanks to a loan from the IDB, which included as a condition the creation of a management institution for the new port, thus giving rise to what is today the Dominican Port Authority (Apordom), created by virtue of Law No. 70 of December 29, 1970.

 

The port is owned by the Dominican State and was given in concession to the company Haina Internacional Terminals, S.A. (HIT), an entity made up of a group of local capital shipping shareholders, dedicated to the handling of loose cargo and containers. Several local companies that export and import fuels, raw materials and bulk cargo also operate there, including Fertilizantes Santo Domingo (Fersan), Interquímica, Mercasid, Multiquímica, Dominican Oil Refinery and Bulk Terminal (Tegra).

 

The Dominican Petroleum Refinery also has a buoy terminal (conventional bouy mooring) for the discharge of refined fuels next to the Port of Haina, and another buoy (single bouy mooring) for the importation of crude oil in Palenque. In both terminals, ships are moored offshore and unloaded using a hose.

 

The ships that arrive at Haina are of various types: freighters, conventional ships with cargo in the hold and in containers; bulk carriers, which bring corn, soybeans, fertilizers, that is, solid bulk cargo; tankers, which carry liquid bulk cargo such as petroleum, chemicals, and vegetable oils.