A lot happens in the ports of Latin America and the pulse of the activity delivers strong signals that are, as every week, detected by PortalPortuario’s Radar.
Just to mention a few things that happened this week, the Empresa Portuaria San Antonio delivered the final list of prequalified candidates who can submit bids to build the Puerto Exterior. In Peru, the new president, José Jerí, reaffirmed the strategic importance of the port sector and shipbuilding, and in Ecuador, private ports announced investments for 2026.
Likewise, the Bioceanic Corridor received support from Chile, after the Ministry of Public Works sealed an investment agreement with the Regional Government of Antofagasta to invest just over 600 million dollars over the next ten years, which establishes a state policy on the matter.
Outside the Region, the points on the Radar come from the Red Sea and Suez Canal area. Although CMA CGM has returned with a large vessel and the Houthi terrorists have promised to stop attacks on vessels related to Israel, the massive return of shipping lines seems complex. MSC, for example, has strengthened a service skirting Africa and the Asian companies show no signs of returning.
The Puerto Exterior, an infrastructure project led by the Empresa Portuaria San Antonio, has taken a relevant step, after the state-owned company confirmed the definitive list of companies and consortia that will be able to bid to build, within the framework of a public tender, the main works of the new complex. That is, in other words, the breakwater, access routes, and dredging.
This action can be considered a milestone in the project which, it must be said, is behind schedule.
Although some specialists and experts say that, at this moment, Chile does not require additional port capacity, which could have some basis, the truth is that more than a decade has passed since the Empresa Portuaria San Antonio had to start developing the project in competition with the Empresa Portuaria Valparaíso, all during the second half of Sebastián Piñera’s first government. The decision was ultimately made by Michelle Bachelet, who – at the end of her second term – gave the green light to San Antonio on January 17, 2018.
Since then, ministerial experts, on one hand, have pushed back the urgent deadline, also – at the time – the state-owned company justified its delay by citing the pandemic, although that health crisis, of course, also affected Peru which did move forward and successfully developed the Port of Chancay in record time. Likewise, one cannot fail to mention the tangle of permits, observations, and bureaucracy, colloquially known as “permisología,” that the project has had to endure, which, it is worth noting, is still in the environmental approval process, and it is likely that EPSA will have to ask for extra time to continue answering and resolving doubts from the relevant public organisms.
Without wishing to over-diagnose the obvious, while the State fights against the State, time is running short. Sources from PortalPortuario indicate that the concessionaire DP World in San Antonio is about to reach 1 million TEU for the first time, while STI crossed that million mark for the fourteenth time. If one considers that the Port of San Antonio has a capacity of more or less 3 million TEU, is the 2036 horizon for having the first terminal of the new complex the right one? Surely, the experts know.
For now, the news is that seven international companies are interested, despite everything.
As is usual in the editions of PortalPortuario’s El Radar, Peru has an almost fixed space. This week, in an interview with this media, the president of that country’s National Port Authority, Juan Ramón Arrisueño, shed light on the port strategy they have drawn up in order to turn the country into a hub.
Some interesting notes emerge from this dialogue. One of them relates to the early signing of the addendum with Tisur to expand the Port of Matarani. In total, 705 million dollars will be injected so that this facility is ready to absorb the demand from new mining projects, but also cargo that could arrive from Brazil and Bolivia.
Those two countries are also in the sights of the future Port of Tacna, which would compete directly with Arica. Southern Peru, on the other hand, could continue developing ports with Ilo and Corío, which are supposed to reach a relevant size. In turn, the vision of the APN is to develop the North and the East (Amazonas) without neglecting the center, where Callao is located, which will continue to be the country’s main port, being considered strategic by the current president, José Jerí.
In this context, the Port of Chancay completed one year since its inauguration this November 14th. In this first calendar cycle, the facility has moved 270 thousand TEUs, although that operation only began last July, so the growth perspective is broad.
To close the Peruvian chapter, the CAF announced that it will present a study to consolidate the Callao-Chancay axis. This is of vital importance for Peru, which lacks an adequate road network, unlike Chile, a situation which -for now- it has begun to compensate for with the recent opening of cabotage.
One of the most viewed notes this week in PortalPortuario was the announcement made by Chile’s Ministry of Public Works that it closed an agreement with the Regional Government of Antofagasta to promote investments of USD 639 million dollars to consolidate the Capricornio Bioceanic Corridor.
The agreement aims to coordinate, plan and execute, in a joint manner, public enabling infrastructure investment initiatives, which will allow the strengthening and modernization of the Capricornio Bioceanic Corridor, improving the territorial, logistical and productive connectivity of the Antofagasta Region.
The MOP Minister, Jessica López, emphasized the importance of “this agreement for programming the execution of projects focused on the development of the Bioceanic Corridor. I thank the governor for helping us and working to build this plan of projects worth 595 billion pesos, to finance it and begin developing these projects which aim to strengthen these works.”
Another corridor
Further north, it is worth mentioning that the Port of Arica, together with the local Regional Government and other actors, are promoting the Central Bioceanic Corridor to connect cargo, fundamentally from the Brazilian interior and more specifically from Rondônia, with the waters of the Pacific, in order to facilitate its transit to Asia.
The intention -is to wait- also has the backing of the State and the central Government if it is considered, as previously indicated, that Peru, through Tacna, will begin to fight to capture cargo in that same area of influence.
The alternatives of Arica and its potential regarding its integration into this corridor will be discussed at a three-day event that will take place in that city and has been called the Bioceanic Node 2025. All the information about this meeting can be followed through PortalPortuario, the official media partner.
Canada
In the north of the continent, the Port of Quebec presented an infrastructure modernization plan that involves estimated investments of 1.7 billion dollars over ten years.
The plan consists of two phases that will extend over a decade, each with multiple projects that will be broken down logically and evaluated individually. This will allow the works to begin. The tender for the first phase of the project will begin in January 2026. Reconstruction work could begin as early as the summer of 2027.
United States
Despite an optimism, which could be understood as window dressing when delivering the figures, the Port of Long Beach reported a drop of -14.9% in October. However, the authorities of this port complex on the west coast of the United States highlighted the fact that between January and October it is still a record year with an increase of 4.1%.
The truth is that this result was achieved only thanks to the advance of international purchases by the country’s retailers to avoid overcosts derived from Donald Trump’s tariff policy in his Trade War with China. Specifically, this port facility began to decrease its transfer in August when the rate fell -1.3%, while in September the decline was -3.9%.
A maritime-port and environmental milestone took place in Brazil with the arrival of the ONE Strength which began its voyages along the east coast of Latin America, having its first port calls in Santos and Paranaguá.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) described this first arrival as “an important milestone in its global decarbonization strategy”, since the ONE Strength is the company’s first sustainable new-generation vessel operating in the region.
The ONE Strength is designed to combine operational efficiency with high environmental performance, incorporating innovative technologies and features that guarantee a significant reduction in energy consumption and emissions.
In the Red Sea area, it seems that calm is already beginning to return.
Still, shipping companies are reluctant to return permanently, despite the efforts of the Suez Canal Authority to attract them and secure their return and despite the fact that the attacks by the Houthi terrorists that began in late 2023 have ceased following the ceasefire in Gaza, which led to the Yemeni armed group laying down actions against ships related to Israel and its partners.
For now, shipping companies would not be available to return until the area is completely safe, but -in the same way- another aspect is the work involved in restructuring the service networks that, forced by the incidents, were consolidated via the Cape of Good Hope.
Similarly, it has been shown that the main Asian shipping companies, all of them within the global TOP 10, have not transited through the area throughout 2025.
For its part, Mediterranean Shipping Company announced that it will reinforce its Iroko service, precisely, with a direct call at Cape Town.
Hapag-Lloyd stated, meanwhile, that it is observing calmer conditions in the Suez Canal region after a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, but that it will only resume its routes through that passage once it is completely safe.
In contrast, CMA CGM ventured into the waters of the Red Sea with one of its large ships, the Benjamin Franklin, which became the largest container ship to transit through the area and through the Suez Canal since the crisis began.
Although by air, Chilean export cherries had already begun to arrive in China a few weeks ago, the so-called Cherry Season has already begun, with the ports of the Valparaíso Region as its main point of departure.
November 11 was the first departure of this seasonal service, provided by different shipping companies, from San Antonio Terminal Internacional. The ship MSC Lome V arrived there to transport the first cherries from that dock of the main Chilean port.
“STI is currently the port (terminal) with the greatest capacity for storing refrigerated containers in Chile and the main departure point for the country’s cherry exports. We work in a coordinated manner with the entire logistics chain and agricultural producers, making available the most modern infrastructure in the country and the operational continuity that distinguishes us, to ensure that every stage of the process is impeccable,” said the general manager of STI, Andrés Albertini.
Valparaíso, for its part, had its kick-off with the departure of HMM Blessing which called at site 3 of Terminal Pacífico Sur, a dock that will see the passage of 300 thousand tons of cherries out of the 670 thousand tons that Chile will export.
Cristian Rodríguez, general manager of Terminal Pacífico Sur (TPS), stated that “at TPS, we are going to be very well prepared this season with 3,400 plugs to be able to have that quantity of refrigerated containers within our facilities.
“This year, we have invested USD 4 million in new state-of-the-art crane equipment, which will allow us to support the entire operation.”
On the other hand, DP World’s turn to start the season will be next November 28.
Ships with cleaner fuels accounted for 37% of merchant ship orders from January to October 2025, unchanged from the same period last year.
This is reportedly because buyers were uncertain about when global rules to reduce maritime emissions would come into force, according to data from the shipping consultancy AXSMarine.
Total gross tonnage (GT), a measure of capacity in the shipping industry, reached 78 million between January and October, below the 113 million from the same period the previous year, according to information recorded by the entity.
In the port area of Guayaquil, the private ports for public use will develop a series of investments between 2026 and 2030 to adjust their supply to the projected demand.
In this way, TPG plans to disburse an amount close to 68 million dollars, while Fertisa will add 18.6 million of the US currency, QC 15.3 million and Store Ocean another USD 14.8 million.
At the close of this edition of El Raadar de PortalPortuario, it is worth mentioning the collaboration between Japan and Colombia, which materialized through a donation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which donated to the mayor’s office of Buenaventura a Local Port Plan whose purpose is to project the development of this activity in the environment of the country’s main port on the Pacific.
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