Chancay Port sees fruitful operation in first 3 months, highlighting win-win BRI cooperation

Goods worth more than $292 million were processed by the Chancay Port in Peru, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), during the port's first three months of operation, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Tuesday, citing data from Peruvian customs and tax authorities.

Peru's imports through the port reached $140 million including engineering machinery, corn, solar panels and automobiles, while exports amounted to more than $139 million including blueberries, avocados, palm oil and grapes, per data released by local authorities. Peru's primary export markets include China, Mexico and the US, according to the CMG report.

The port, also the first smart and green port in South America, officially commenced operations on November 14. The project reduced the sea shipping time from Peru to China to 23 days, lowering logistics expenses by at least 20 percent, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The operation of the port has turbocharged trans-Pacific trade, boosting the trade of fruits, minerals and machinery between not just China and Peru but also other countries in Latin America.

"We have been using the Chancay Port since its opening to ship blueberries. We ship certain blueberries that we produce in Ica, Peru through the Chancay Port to Shanghai and then into China and we are also planning to send some grapes from Peru to China as well," Gonzalo Matamala, general manager for the Asia and China region with Chile-based fruits company Giddings Fruit, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The Chancay Port cut the transit time between Peru and China a lot, and the transit time provided by COSCO Shipping is much shorter than regular carriers. This is a very interesting project," Matamala said. "For us, the Chancay Port is a very useful gateway for fruits from Peru and also for the transit trade from Chile to Peru and then to another country," Matamala said.

The cost-saving shipping link has also benefited Chinese companies importing from Latin American countries. In November, a company in Northwest China's Gansu Province imported more than 2,600 tons of silver concentrates using the Chancay Port for the first time, according to a post on the website of the Gansu provincial government.

The product first came to Shanghai via Chancay, then was transshipped to Hong Kong and Qingdao in East China's Shandong before finally arriving in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province where it embarked on trains to travel along the New Eurasian Land Bridge to finally arrive in Gansu.

Gansu Logistics Group, which imported the cargo, said it would seize the opportunity brought by the Chancay Port to further tap the minerals market of Peru, per the post.

Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the fact that the Chancay Port can generate significant trade volume despite being in its initial stage of operation has underlined the world's need for connectivity, one of the key objectives of the BRI.

The port makes it possible to ship a wide range of goods from Latin America without having to go through the Panama Canal first, and it has unlocked a bottleneck for development and sped up the independent development of Latin American countries, Song said, noting that the new, faster shipping link bridged the products of Latin America with the huge demand of Chinese consumers in a form of mutually beneficial, highly complementary trade.

"Win-win cooperation is the hallmark of China's relations with Latin America," Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday, while responding to recent comments made by some foreign media outlets suggesting China-US competition in Latin America is heating up.

In economic, trade and investment cooperation with Latin America, China never seeks so-called geopolitical competition or resorts to the tricks of carving out spheres of influence, Guo noted. "Let me stress that it's a disrespect to Latin American countries in itself to have eyes on them for greater influence, and point fingers at their normal cooperation with third parties," he said.

Despite the noises from some foreign media reports, BRI projects, China's policies on continuous opening-up, as well as the operation of import-boosting platforms such as the China International Import Expo will continue to promote win-win cooperation, Song said.

The Chancay Port, for example, is projected to generate $4.5 billion in yearly revenues for Peru and create over 8,000 direct employment opportunities, according to Xinhua.