The $3bn scheme to build the Peruvian port of Chancay is on track to complete next month, Reuters reports.
A local executive of the Chinese shipping company Cosco said the inauguration would take place in the middle of November, after which a route would begin operating to Shanghai, consisting of two container ships a week.
President Xi Jinping of China is expected to attend the opening ceremony.
The port will aggregate cargo carried on relatively small container ships from Colombia, Ecuador and Chile and transport them to Asia in “ultra large” carriers, which can accommodate between 14,500 and 24,000 containers.
In the past, these ships had to go to Mexico or California to unload.
The new port is expected to cut the time taken to transport cargo across the Pacific from 35 days to 23, and costs by 30%.
“At the end of November, we will begin the stage known as ‘test conditioning’, which we expect to run until May. However, during this soft launch phase, we can handle actual cargo, with two direct vessels per week,” the official said.
State-owned Cosco Shipping Ports will own the port and will operate it with a 60% stake, with the remaining 40% held by Peruvian miner Volcan, controlled by Swiss company Glencore.
The project is being built by China Harbour Engineering, a subsidiary of China Communications. It contains a multipurpose terminal as well as docks, breakwaters, piers and a 1.8km tunnel connecting the warehouses and the port entrance.
The 992ha complex is located 67km north of Lima. When fully commissioned, it will be able to handle 1.5 million twenty-foot-equivalent containers and 6 million tonnes of general cargo a year.
In July, Alfredo Ferrero, Peru’s US ambassador, presented American investors with an option to build a $7bn port in Corio, in the south of the country, thereby balancing Chinese influence in the country.
The largest port in South America is Colón in Panama, which handles around 4.5 million containers a year.
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