Puerto Exterior San Antonio: “We need to ensure that Asia Pacific will continue to reach Chile”
President of the Port, Sally Bendersky, has referred to the current course and the challenges of the plan.
The president of the board of directors of Puerto San Antonio, Sally Bendersky, said that “we have not thought about anything other than rushing the trance” when referring to the development of the Outer Port and the pressure that represents for the project the advances in the construction of the Chancay port in Peru. He explained that “what we need is not to change the design of our project. What we need is to ensure that (trade in) Asia Pacific will continue to reach Chile and not all of Asia Pacific just to Peru”.
Bendersky, made these statements in the framework of the opening day of Trans-Port 2022 that takes place in the Valparaíso Passenger Terminal (VTP), occasion in which, in addition, projected that “We think that the year 2034 we will have the first site, in the first dock we will have the first ship and the entire port will enter into operation between 2040 and 2050” and given the extension of time that will involve the lifting of the work, emphasized that the process “will be gradual and therefore the construction project has to be as friendly as possible”.
In addition, he took the opportunity to highlight that “already at this moment began a second process of citizen participation from the Environmental Assessment System and we make a tremendous call to the community to please participate”. This refers to the 30-day deadline that the port will have to disseminate the terms of addendum number 1 of the project in the community.
Bendersky also referred to the holding on October 7 of the Port City Council in San Antonio, an instance that will be led by the Regional Governor of Valparaíso, Rodrigo Mundaca, which he described as “absolutely vital” and in which he said he hopes that “our attitude as a port is to leave listening, the initiatives and the concerns of the different sectors of the city”.
Meanwhile, the general manager of Puerto San Antonio, Luis Knaak, in conversation with MundoMarítimo, agreed on the importance of Puerto Exterior: “Chile cannot be left behind, it is very important for the country and it is tremendously important for San Antonio to receive the infrastructure it has been waiting for so long”.
In that context, he stressed that “the delay of one year compared to the current schedule means 3,000 million a year of social cost,” which he said implies “that the same people will have to pay much more expensive for the imported product for all these additional operations that will have to be done, Probably from Chancay, and the same exporter will be less competitive and that will put at risk the labor sources of many Chileans. Therefore, advancing as quickly as possible with the Outer Port is vital for the country”.
Alto San Antonio Project
But the executive stressed that Puerto San Antonio is not exhausted only in the Outer Port. “We are also working with the frequency regulator Alto San Antonio that will allow the port to have an enclosure that will house trucks and make picking that (consists) take out the corresponding truck, so that it goes down and the port is ready to service it,” explained Knaak.
“This aside from streamlining the flow of trucks, which is going to be very good for the city, has an important environmental component because the truck will be able to wait with the engine off; but it also has a human component because the driver will be able to get down, Make use of basic services and wait quietly for your turn”
According to Knaak, the first part of the project involves 200 trucks, 50% of the total, and in October next year the second part will be added with the other 200 trucks to complete 40. The executive noted that this project -focused on containerized export cargo- “is highly anticipated by the logistics community and by the neighbors and the truth is that we have allocated many resources to move very fast”.
SOURCE: MUNDOMARITIMO.CL