According to specialists consulted for this report, this port aims to become a regional port hubwhich will consolidate the Export and import loads between Asia and South America.
For the economist Jorge VegaProfessor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), it is due “to its geographical location, its size, its modern technology and its contacts with world shipping networks.” For all this, the approximate travel time between South America and China It will be reduced from 35 to 37 days, about 23 or 25 days.
A brief story
The story began in 2007. Juan Ribaudo de la TorreEx the Mirante de la Marina Peruana, considered that Chancay Bay, with its almost 18 meters draft, gave the opportunity to build a port capable of receiving large commercial boats. He founded the Chancay Ports company and, in 2011, the project attracted the attention of the Minera Volcan, which acquired 50% of the shares.
After Ribaudo’s death in 2013, The mining company was 100% of the project. Three years later, the execution of preliminary works began alone. However, their evolution implied an investment that surpassed them and undertook the search for a strategic partner.
In 2019, Cosco Shipping Ports joined the project to Acquire 60% of shares. This is a Chinese state company starts from the Ocean Alliance, a commercial strategic alliance that registered the initiative of the Strip and the Route. This strategy is promoted by China since 2013 and seeks to revitalize and expand the trade routes that connect China with Europe, Asia, Africa and other regions of the world, such as South America.
In 2020 the construction of the port in Chancay, providing a total investment of US $ 3,400 million. Last November, its first stage was inaugurated, to which they were allocated US $ 1,315 million. This initial phase consists of four docks, an administrative complex, logistics services and a tunnel almost two kilometers long.
According to Cosco, the port contemplates the total construction of 15 springs in four stages, that will be in operation by 2032. It is also a Automated installationwith autonomous cranes, unmanned electric vehicles and, according to the company, no carbon use.
According to the Central Bank of Peruvian Reserve, the contribution of the port to the economy will be 0.3% of GDP In this first phase. Its entry into operation is expected to reach 0, 9% during 2025.
The regional impact
For the internationalist Óscar Vidartealso PUCP professor, “The port of Chancay will completely change the Port and Naviera dynamics of the South Pacific ”although he considered that, “especially in Chile, there is a lot of fear of affecting its own ports.”
“However, Chile and Peru ships usually go to Mexico or the United StatesThey change to larger ships and cross the Pacific. The Chilean exports trade to China will be expedited. That is fundamental for fruits and all edible products, ”he explained.
Along the same lines, he said that Chancay could allow the improvement of connection routes between Peru and Brazil, but that it will depend on whether the South American giant is interested in crossing the Amazon to reach the Peruvian coast or, instead, prefers to maintain its route shipping through the Atlantic.
In fact, in May 2024, Brazil and China inaugurated a new commercial route that joins Cariocas ports with the city of Tianjin, located at 170 kilometers from Beijing. The operator of this route will also be Cosco Shipping.
China Peru
Peru Presidency
“Is there economic justification to spend so much money for a railway road that one to Peru and Brazil, and that has the port of Chancay as departure? I believe that now more than before, because before there was no port “says Vidarrte.
However, specialists warn that, to think about it, Peru must first solve infrastructure problems. For Vega, the government “is late in provide adequate roads or railways”, As well as in the urban improvement and expansion of Chancay.
The economist indicates that public and private projects of expansion and new roads are being developed in the Pan -American Highway, which connects Chancay with the rest of the country.
“But all this will take time to materialize and it will not be ready before May”, which is when the trial period will conclude and full operations will begin.
The United States look
Four days after the inauguration of the port, Mauricio Claver-Carone He gave an interview with Bloomberg where he said that “any product that passes through Chancay or any other port in the region that China controls or possesses should be subject to a 60%tariff.”
“As if the product outside China”, Said the then advisor to the transition team of Donald Trump. In January, he was chosen as the new special envoy of the State Department for Latin America.
Also in November, Laura J. Richardson, former head of the South Command of the US Department of Defense.He told the Financial Times that the port could house, in the future, Chinese Navy War Shipswhich would make the installation a Strategic point within the Military Expansion Plan of the Asian giant.
Is the Chinese presence in Chancay a threat to the United States? To Vidarte, you have to see the two sides of the currency because, he says, “there is a lot of exaggeration.” “Claver-Carone talks about taxes, but Chancay’s assets are not planning to go to the United States, because it is a port that plans to connect with the Pacific Asia,” he says.
However, he acknowledged that American concern is not only Chinese economic influence, “but they consider that the port of Chancay can be a Geestratic port“In a scenario” of greater confrontation with China. “
“The port has been built for commercial purposes. There is no rule, or legal or legal consideration that is used for other purposes. But they fear that, when the time comes, it will be used for it. ”
Given this scenario, the internationalist admits that The Peruvian government played a role of “balancer”, especially during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC)held last November.
“On the one hand, Chancay was inaugurated and, on the other, The agreement was signed so that the United States can have a space port in Talara”, Recalled. And indeed: this initiative is part of an agreement with NASA, with a view to “promoting the research and development of advanced technologies.”
The project will imply a disbursement of some U $ 268 million On the part of both nations and will be located in a city that, according to the commander of the Peruvian Air Force, Carlos Chávez, is only four degrees below the equatorial line, which gives a “huge advantage” to space and suborbital vehicles.
Vidarte considers that this agreement “is not a small thing”, because, for the United States, the spatial scope is not a topic of research, but also of “security.”
“Peru always plays this balance so as not to be seen either very Chinese or very American. A midpoint that is quite difficult. You can still walk in that thin line. I don’t know how long. ”
Source: Ambito
