Today Maersk Container Industry announced a USD 170 million investment to build a new refrigerator container factory in San Antonio, Chile, in a bid to accommodate Latin America’s export boom.
The factory entails a capital investment of USD 170 million and will begin operating by the end of 2013. Once fully operating, it will reach an output of 40,000 reefer containers and 30,000 reefer machines annually.
“We position our investment on the basis of future world trade flows, and we do so with solid support and cooperation from customers and authorities,” Maersk Container Industry (MCI) CEO Peter Nymand says. ”This investment is a supplement to our important reefer factory in Qingdao, China, where we are also expanding.”
MCI’s new factory will create 1,800 jobs in and around San Antonio, and, more broadly, help correct a reefer trade imbalance that disadvantages exporters of fresh produce, fish and meat from Western South America.
Local production
The current world trade imbalance means that tens of thousands of reefer containers are shipped empty to Western South America each year to be loaded with reefer cargo. After 2013 this shortage will be less acute as MCI starts its local supply of the most durable and energy-efficient reefers currently on the market.
“The new factory will produce Maersk’s high-tech reefers in a part of the world where exporters have problems gaining access to reefers,” Nymand says.
The customers will benefit from a reduction of the number of empty reefers in their supply chains and the locally produced containers will help shipping lines and Latin American exporters of fresh produce, fish and meat bring their goods to the global market.
In 2010 exports of reefer cargo from Chile reached 215,189 TEU and imports 34,154 TEU, meaning a deficit of reefers of 181,035 TEU. The total reefer deficit for West Coast of South America, i.e. Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile was 384,696 TEU. (Source: Seabury Database, 2010)
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