Peru to overhaul ageing ports

Peru aims to unveil a $250 million container terminal by 2009 to revamp its ageing, congested ports and become a major trade hub in the Pacific, the National Port Authority said on Thursday.
Peru's Callao port, which handles 90 percent of Peru's $10 billion annual exports, is creaking under the strain of an export boom driven by US and Chinese demand for goods such as minerals, textiles, asparagus and coffee.
Peru hopes to open the bidding for the container terminal early next year and aims to attract leading port operators such as Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, port authority board member Guillermo Vega told Reuters.
"We aim to build a $250 million container terminal for Callao and the tender process could start in early 2005. Construction would take three years, so we are looking at 2008 or 2009 as a start date," Vega told Reuters after a presentation on the future of Peru's ports.
The transport ministry has hired U.S-based engineering company Moffat and Nichol to draw up the design for the container port, which will be presented in November.
Vega said he expects the new terminal to handle some 350,000 containers a year, taking Callao's total capacity to one million containers a year.
Peru desperately needs the extra facilities. Peru exported a record $1.08 million in goods in July but hundreds of containers are delayed every month because of a shortage of space on boats, exporters say.
"We hope that if we modernise the ports, more ships will be able to dock in Peru," Vega said.
Peru needs to invest some $600 million in its ports over the next few years to keep up with demand and boost its $60 billion economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The national port authority also plans to renovate existing piers at Callao, which is located on the northern edge of the Peruvian capital, Lima.
Ports authority director Jose Luis Guerola said the modernisation at Callao should also allow Peru to become a major regional trade hub in the southern Pacific, although it would need to improve road links between its ports first.
"If the US West Coast is the main hub of the Americas and Panama's Balboa port is the gateway to Panama Canal, then Peru needs to be the most important port in the south-east Pacific region," Guerola said.