Ecuador president threatens to expel Hutchison

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Saturday he may expel Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Port Holdings because it isn't meeting a timetable for investments at the Manta cargo port.

Correa used soccer slang in referring to the delays during his weekly radio broadcast, saying he had "pulled out a yellow card."

He said that if the company doesn't meet its commitments, "it will have to leave the country and you know we are not joking."

Hutchison agreed to spend more than $430 million to develop the port when it signed a 30-year concession in 2006.

The company's Web site says that Terminales Internacionales de Ecuador now operates on about 37 acres (15 hectares) and is projected to cover 185 acres (75 hectares) when completed, with a quay nearly 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) long.

It says the port is "the closest natural deep water port to Asia on the Pacific coast of South America."

People who answered the phone at Hutchison's office in Ecuador on Saturday said nobody was available to comment.

Hutchison says it is the world's leading port investor. It is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited.