TPS managing director Oliver Weinreich rated 2019 as “satisfactory”, with 893,198 TEUs and a 0.2% year on year growth. “Volume of TEUs in 2019 was similar to 2018, close to 900,000, so we’re very pleased with having kept the figure,” said the executive in exclusive interview with MundoMaritimo. “In 2018 we had an illegal blockage which damaged volume at the end of the year. In 2019 it was the complete opposite, so in November and December we were operating and had a deviated volume that helped us keep the TEUs,” he said.

Port stability

The 8 million tons of cargo registered in 2019 marks a 10% drop compared to the previous year, due to the ‘type of cargo’. “We had 30% more general cargo” and also “we had a different distribution of empty v/s full, which keeps the TEUs but in terms of tons marks less,” but all was within the expected figures for the year.

The cherry season was ‘incredible’ according to Weinreich. TPS served 15 containerships with 119,837 tons headed for Asia in 5,620 reefer containers, equivalent to almost 60% of the country’s general cherry export. “We had a regular service to Asia, a ‘cherry express’ with high volume, but we also had cargo that was deviated from other ports to Valparaiso because we were the only one operating in November and December with regular scheduling amidst the country’s instability,” he added. In line with TPS’s ability to stay operational during Chile’s complex social and political context during Q4, Weinreich pointed out that “we learned many lessons from our own episode in 2018,” referring to the blockage by port workers.

“We understand the social demands, they are valid, and changes must be made, but we support the country in the port stability issues. Valparaiso’s supply chain -not just port workers but all of us as TPS- works around the clock: truck drivers, customs workers, etc., we all understand the importance of keeping fluency in the supply chain and that’s how we managed to keep the port operational.”

20 years of concession

In 2020 TPS completes 20 years of its 30-year concession period. “We must celebrate this milestone because we are proud of what we have accomplished,” said Weinreich, who also shared that “we have achieved the infrastructure works we had planned. We made the 120-meter dock expansion, which allowed us to service ships of 335 meters length, we invested in 5 Liebherr’s Super Post Panamax gantry cranes, the largest in outreach, and many other investments.”

“We have the capacity to serve 1,3 million TEUs without problem. But I wouldn’t say we’ve reached our maximum, because we can never stay still with what we have, you have to keep moving forward and looking into what you can do and that’s where I believe Valparaiso’s development should go to in the next 10 years. Together with Empresa Portuaria Valparaiso (EPV) we are evaluating projects in order to keep the port of Valparaiso’s leadership in terms of efficiency, safety and capacity.”

Part of the digital revolution

During the 20 years of concession in Chile, the maritime-port industry has seen deep changes and Weinreich points to how the terminal has coped. “Before it was all about the physical infrastructure, now the focus has shifted to the digital sphere. In 2015 we migrated the terminal’s operating system (TOS) to NAVIS, as the new platform offered a higher industry standard to satisfy our needs.”

“Last year we were invited to participate in TradeLens, the Maersk & IBM joint blockchain and we immediately said yes,” said the executive, who also talked about the XVELA platform form NAVIS but for vessels. Weinreich also mentioned the upcoming transactional web for TPS. “We manage the public website for people to get to know the company, but we also have a website for transactions and that’s where we’re making changes to be on top of the digital trends.”

As far as security, after the ransomware attacks occurred last year that affected several companies, TPS’s managing director said “we had to strengthen our security measures. We are constantly on top of it.”

“We like competition”

DP World landed in Chile in 2019 after acquiring Pulogsa, putting Puerto Central, TPS direct competitor, in the spotlight. “We like the competition, it made the port market move, bringing challenges, innovation and news to the local industry.” In February TPS recovered the “MSC Europe” service both northbound and southbound calls. “We are very happy to have them back. MSC has very high standards regarding timing and service speed, which pushes us to deliver our absolute best service,” he added, highlighting the importance of recovering the connection to Europe from Valparaiso after the ‘lagoon’ produced by the loss of the “Eurosal” service. For Weinreich this is a great opportunity, especially for local clients in Valparaiso. “We see good volume and stability projections. Also, this helps us mixing the Asian and European markets. For example, now that the coronavirus affecting the Asian market, we have the European market to balance it out.”

Relationship with EPV

The executive also shared in with the relationship with Empresa Portuaria Valparaiso. “The port company is always keeping a watchful eye on the challenges for the port of Valparaiso. On one had there’s Terminal 2 which is getting its environmental certification and later on they’ll have to deal with whoever operates it along with the access project and all the other projects we as TPS have in store to stay operational.” As far as the work relationship with EPV, “once again we have cruise ships on TPS and little by little we are recovering the tourist passenger volume that comes through there. That’s another business line along with ZEAL, VTP, Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 and EPV is working very hard to develop Valparaiso as a whole, so I’m very happy to see how the talks have developed.”

By MundoMaritimo