CK Hutchison’s Panama Ports Company (PPC) has expanded its international arbitration claims against the Republic of Panama, pushing the total damages sought to more than $2 billion.
The dispute stems from a Supreme Court ruling in Panama that declared PPC’s concessions for the container terminals at Balboa and Cristobal unconstitutional. The terminals were subsequently taken over by Panamanian authorities last month.
CK Hutchison has described the takeover as unlawful and has referred the matter to arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce Court.
In a statement, the Hong Kong-headquartered group said PPC supplemented its claims in a filing on 24 March 2026, citing what it called the state’s extreme executive actions, takeover, occupation, seizure of proprietary and protected documents, and a wider pattern of misconduct over more than a month. According to the group, these actions marked a further culmination of a campaign against PPC that has been continuing for more than a year. It also said the state had failed to coordinate regarding access to property or compensation and had instead made inaccurate statements concerning PPC and its assets.
The additional filing brings the total damages sought by PPC to more than $2 billion.
CK Hutchison also said Panama had failed to submit an initial response in the arbitration proceedings. The group stated that Panama had itself indicated it had not retained legal counsel and had used that as grounds for delay. It argued that Panama is attempting to slow the arbitration, draw unrelated parties into the dispute and continue what PPC sees as an ongoing attack campaign.
At the same time, Panama has handed temporary operations of the Balboa and Cristobal terminals to Maersk’s APM Terminals and MSC’s TiL respectively for a period of 18 months.
