The arrival of the Kota Santos, a 7,500 TEU vessel operating under the ‘WSA6’ service, at San Antonio Terminal Internacional (STI) marks a milestone for PIL. Despite the challenging global maritime trade environment, the company has reaffirmed its commitment and confidence in the Chilean and Latin American markets. This commitment is reflected in the enhancement of its services and the expansion of its network of agencies and offices across the region.

On this occasion, Nicolas Romero, Head of Latin America at PIL, engaged in an in-depth conversation with MundoMarítimo, sharing the company’s perspective on these key topics.

Describing the event as “a very special moment for us,” Romero highlighted the growth of PIL’s presence in Chile, where its regional office is based. He added, “Earlier this month (May), we opened our own agency in Chile, and we are very pleased to expand our footprint in this country, especially with our new service to San Antonio. Our goal is always to improve the quality of our service and better serve our customers. That’s how we differentiate ourselves: we listen to our customers and strive to do what’s best for them”.

Regarding the new partnership with STI, he explained that the objective is to continue growing and to better serve PIL’s customers. “We believe that STI can add significant value in terms of efficiency, productivity, growth, and proximity to our exporters of refrigerated cargo and minerals. For all these reasons, we have decided to embark on this new collaboration, which we believe will be a long-term relationship,” he stated.

Romero also pointed out that the arrival of the Kota Santos opens the door for the arrival of larger vessels: “That’s something the terminal can offer us -the possibility of continuing to grow with larger vessels. We will continue to bring in efficient ships, including LNG-powered vessels, soon. We are also investing in new technologies for refrigerated containers to supply the market and support customers requiring premium services.”

“With my strong operational background, we’ve been working hard to assess what we need for the future and how we can become more efficient,” he noted, emphasizing PIL’s goals of faster vessel turnaround times and continued growth. In that regard, he highlighted STI’s strengths: “They are developing in-house tools to digitally measure yard efficiency and vessel size, always seeking improvement. They have a robust safety program, work with a highly reputable stevedoring company that is increasingly reliable, which is critical for ensuring dependability”.

He also highlighted STI’s capacity to support PIL’s growth: “They enable us to expand in terms of volume. They have a clear vision for expansion, more space, and greater efficiency. We are also closer to depots and road access points, with strong support from the local logistics community. Additionally, the authorities are working hard to ensure safe navigation, including managing [wave height] limits. We feel very supported in our efforts to continue improving the situation.”

Challenges for PIL in the Region

Regarding PIL’s operations along the West Coast of Latin America, Romero noted that the ‘WSA6’ service had been facing some challenges in terms of its schedule, which includes calls in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, and finally Chile. “The question was how to improve this. What we did was add an additional vessel, which allowed us to increase capacity and ensure on-time arrivals. I would say one of the biggest challenges has been service quality, particularly schedule reliability and delays,” he explained.

Another challenge, he said, is that the service primarily focuses on the export of refrigerated cargo, though not exclusively. To address this, he stated, “We need good storage facilities and nearby depots to supply our customers with both reefer and high-quality dry containers. In summary, the main challenges are reliability, equipment, and having strong partners. That’s why we carefully select each terminal, each depot, each storage point, to ensure we provide a premium-quality product.”

Positive Outlook for the Regional Market

While Romero acknowledges that the global economic context is challenging, he remains optimistic about the regional market. “We see continued flows from Asia to Chile, and there are still growth opportunities. The market is stable now; we don’t know what will happen in a month or a few months, but for now, the outlook is positive. When we talk to our customers, we see they still have ambitious growth plans, so we remain optimistic, despite the uncertainty in the U.S., Mexico, and elsewhere. We still see opportunities,” he affirmed.

He pointed, for example, to Mexico’s strong automotive exports to the U.S.: “Perhaps tomorrow they’ll export fewer, but we’ll still have a strong market in Chile for car imports. We see the same from Peru, Colombia, and Mexico -new opportunities are emerging to continue developing the market. We need to be agile. We handle all types of markets- primarily cargo to/from Asia, but also what we call way ports, meaning cargo from other Latin American countries to Chile, and potentially in the future, from Chile to other countries in the region.”

PIL’s Commitment to Latin America

Romero emphasized that “we believe in Latin America, and we believe in Chile,” a belief reflected in the presence of nine PIL agencies and the opening of nine more across the region, as well as its own offices: “Last year we opened three, this year we started with Chile, and we will keep going,” he projected.

He added, “We continue to deploy our new LNG-powered vessels to the West Coast of South America. In our ‘WS2’ service, we’re introducing 13,000 and 14,000 TEU LNG-powered vessels. The same goes for the East Coast of the Americas. And in this specific service (WSA6’), we will also bring in new LNG vessels. We are investing in people, in technology, in equipment, and yes, we believe we have a role to play here. PIL has been in Latin America for over 20 years and now is a great time to demonstrate our commitment to the region and to Chile, putting all our efforts into its development,” he concluded.

By MundoMaritimo