Peru, Major Port in Chancay Operated by Chinese Company COSCO

On the Pacific coast, 80 kilometers north of Lima, Peru, the giant new port of Chancay is being built. The infrastructure, 60% of which belongs to Chinese state-owned company COSCO Shipping and the remaining stake owned by Peruvian mining group Volcan Compania Minera, will cost $3.5 billion and should be partially completed by the end of 2024.

With this work, which will be directly controlled by the shipping company, Beijing creates a privileged trade route with South America, guaranteeing access to the region rich in natural resources and a preferential market for exports. The port is part of the Chinese-led Belt and Road (New Silk Road) project and is a testament to Beijing’s growing influence on the continent.

Preliminary work began in 2016, and the first part of the structure is due to be opened on the occasion of Xi Jinping’s visit to this South American country to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Lima in November 2024. The goal is to become the benchmark port hub of the South Pacific.

The first private port for public use on the Peruvian coast will be a state-of-the-art technological and environmentally sustainable facility. The port will be able to accommodate all major container ships (and other commercial cargo vessels), handling a maximum of up to 1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) per year. At the same time, a new 1,100-hectare economic district and logistics zone will be built in the Chancay district.

According to a Reuters report, the strategic importance of this port will in practice turn into a center for copper exports from Peru and a more efficient way to ship Brazilian soybeans to China. At the same time, there are plans to create an industrial processing center for agricultural products that will come here from the western regions of Brazil, such as Rondônia, Acre, and Amazonas.