Posted on November 30, 2017
Chinese investors are looking to build a US$1bn port on Peru’s central coast.
That is according to Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
“There’s a Chinese group that’s ready to finance this US$1.4bn project. It’s huge,” he told BN Americas.
He also said that the Kuczynski government is backing new port concessions in Salaverry and Chimbote on Peru’s north coast.
The Salaverry port concession in La Libertad region is designed to handle agricultural exports, fish, grains and containers. The project is scheduled to be put up for bids next year.
President Kuczynski said he is also pushing to restart the Chavimochic III irrigation project in La Libertad, which was stalled after its concessionaire Odebrecht got caught up in a corruption scandal.
Infrastructure investments
President Kuczynski said on a wider scale he is looking to accelerate US$25bn in infrastructure concessions to make Peru’s exports more competitive.
According to Peru’s Ministry of Transport, Peru has lined up 58bn soles (US$18bn) in transport infrastructure projects through 2025.
In addition to Salaverry, the government is also promoting an upgrade of the Port of Marcona, to be linked to a railway for minerals.
The government is also studying putting up for bids a concession to transport 5,000 passengers a day along the central Andean railway, which is currently used only to transport cargo.
The country is trying to get itself back up on its feet after the flooding, torrential rains and landslides caused by the El Niño phenomenon in March, which caused billions in damage to infrastructure.
Source: portstrategy
