ZPMC makes Chilean delivery

ZPMC has delivered new gantry equipment to Chile’s two leading container terminals. San Antonio Terminal International (STI) has taken delivery of two post-panamax ship-to-shore gantry cranes taking its total to six, while Terminal Pacifico Sur Valparaiso received its fifth gantry.

When fully commissioned they will add 250,000teu a year in capacity to the SSA/Saam-operated STI and another 150,000teu a year to the Ultramar-owned facility in Valparaiso.

The deliveries come at a time of shrinking volumes in Chilean ports. Volumes in Chile have dropped by around 25% in 2009, according to Alvaro Brunet, CEO of Ultramar’s port investment arm, Neltume.

Alberto Borquez, general manager of STI, said utilisation in the terminal had reached levels of as little as 24% raising serious questions about plans by the Chilean government to forge ahead with two new concessions at the port.

STI is fighting a fierce rearguard action against plans to introduce intra-port two new privately run terminals in San Antonio and Valparaiso.

It is lobbying for an alternative approach that would maintain competition between existing operators in the country’s main ports, which, according to STI-funded research, would involve lower development costs.

Government plans to develop two new terminals in Valparaiso and San Antonio would cost US$413m in combined infrastructure costs (excluding equipment) to create 5.7m teu of capacity by 2017, while the cost of expanding existing terminals in each port would cost $87m less and would facilitate a combined capacity of 5.9m teu by 2017.