Jorge Quispe C. / La Paz
Measuring 328 meters long (length), 48 wide (beam) and capable of transporting 12,000 20-foot containers, the MSC Aino ship docked yesterday in the port of Arica, Chile. It is the largest ship that arrived in the year to those coasts and in its first blog it brought 523 cargo containers to Bolivia. In the country, businessmen are looking forward to the new service at the Puerto Arica Terminal (TPA) and believe that higher volumes of cargo can now be exported.
Until yesterday, Arica was used to seeing ships of up to 150 meters long and about 32 meters wide dock at its terminal, with a capacity to carry 5,000 containers, but the colossus that arrived constitutes a landmark not only for northern Chile, but also also for Bolivia, because it will allow national exporters and importers “to increase their cargo volumes, which in some cases may even mean a reduction in their costs, which is why it is good news,” Jaime Ascarrunz, president of the Federation of Entrepreneurs, warned yesterday. Private of La Paz (Feplp).
The MSC Aino arrived at the Chilean port at noon from Bolivia. There the ship dwarfed the different boats. “The berthing of a ship like this was not seen before in Arica. This will allow us to consolidate the port as a world-class port ”, said Gabriel Tomani, general manager of TPA, during the ceremony of welcoming the largest ship in history to the port of Arica.
Among the guests were senators and deputies from Chile, but also Javier Baldiviezo, head of the Bolivian Port Services Administration (ASPB) in Arica.
Arrived with cargo for Bolivia
In contact with Página Siete from Arica, Baldiviezo highlighted the new prospects for Bolivian trade from now on. “Ships like this can transport cargo three times more than common ones and it is very important for Bolivia to have this possibility, because more can be exported and imported from our country,” said the national authority.
On its first visit to the Chilean port, MSC Aino arrived with 611 containers. “Of that total, 523 are containers in transit to Bolivia. We expect that about 150 and up to 200 will go in direct dispatch, the rest will be done gradually, “said Baldiviezo, confirming that one of the first clients of the new ship in Arica was Bolivia.
Baldiviezo points out that the arrival of the ship to Arica is part of the commitments that the Chileans agreed on October 11 in Chungará with Bolivia to expand and improve services.
Ascarrunz, from Feplp, highlighted the new options that the Chilean port gives to the growing national cargo. “As a Mediterranean country that we are, the arrival of larger ships to Arica will give us the option of improving Bolivian trade. To this we only have to add the resumption of the La Paz-Arica railway, which, as we said before, does not harm land transport, “he said. In March, carriers in Oruro opposed the train reactivating its cargo service to Chile because, according to them, it was going to deplete their containers.
Baldiviezo recalled that soybeans, sugar, minerals and other raw materials are exported from Bolivia by Chilean ports, while importers purchase a series of inputs from Asian and European markets.
Yesterday was the first test in Arica, for vessels like MSC Aino to reach the port, the objective is to turn the sector into an international class terminal. To do this, the Chileans have worked since 2019 on liming the port, which now has a depth of 11.4 meters, and for this they invested more than 2.8 million dollars.
The country moves more than 70% of its cargo through Chilean ports and although in 2019, the then presidents of Peru and Bolivia, Martín Vizcarra and Evo Morales, spoke of building “a megaport in Ilo”, that has not yet been translated into works. “To develop Ilo political decisions and a lot of investment are needed,” said Ascarrunz, president of La Paz businessmen.
