Chancay megaport magnifies China’s presence in South America

The new deep-water seaport at Chancay, north of Lima, is open for business, signaling the start of a new era of efficient, high-capacity shipping between China and Peru, with a connection to Brazil across the Andes. This is driving US military and strategic planners up the wall, but they have nothing comparable to offer and no way to stop it.

Meanwhile, Caltrain, the railway service operating between San Jose and San Francisco, has sold its old diesel trains to the city of Lima. Caltrain itself has gone electric.

Chinese President Xi Jinping joined Peruvian President Dina Boluarte for the seaport’s inauguration ceremony on November 14, participating via video link from the Government Palace in Lima. Xi was also there to attend the annual APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit meetings, which began the following day.

Waxing poetic, Xi called the Chancay project “a starting point to forge a new maritime-land corridor between China and Latin America and connect the Great Inca Trail.”

Built by COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Company) and Peruvian mining company Volcan over the past three years, Chancay port has a maximum depth of 17.8 meters, deeper than Peru’s main port of Callao. This will allow it to handle the world’s largest container ships.

Financed by Chinese banks, with total investment exceeding $3.5 billion, Chancay is 60%-owned by COSCO. More than 8,000 jobs are expected to be created. Annual revenue is projected to reach $4.5 billion.

Starting at 1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), the port’s annual throughput is scheduled to rise to 3.5 million TEUs when all the facilities are completed, making it the premier deep-water port on the west coast of South America.

A warehousing, industrial and